St Mary’s Statement on Marking and Assessment Boycott and Postgraduate Admissions

Students in the UK may be affected by the on-going Marking and Assessment Boycott that is affecting some universities. To allay the concerns of affected students, St Mary’s has issued the following statement to applicants of postgraduate programmes, including PGCE.

“We understand that a Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB) is a cause of concern for students currently finishing their degrees at affected UK universities. We want to reassure you that we very much want you to enrol at St Mary’s in September. As such, if it looks like you are on track to meet the conditions of your offer based on your confirmed academic performance to date, we will allow you to enrol in September, even if your final degree classification is still pending.

If you are affected by a MAB, and there will be a delay in receiving confirmation of your final degree classification, please contact our admissions team at apply@stmarys.ac.uk who will be able to support you with starting your studies this September. Please provide a copy of your official in-progress transcript from your current university, this will confirm your results confirmed to date. Please also provide a letter or email from an official at your current university confirming that your results are delayed due to a MAB.

If you are unaffected by a MAB and have received confirmation of your final degree classification from your current university, please provide us with a copy of this notification so we can update your offer. You can either upload this to your applicant portal or you can email this to apply@stmarys.ac.uk.

We will still need confirmation of your final results when they do become available, and even if it turns out that you have not met your original offer conditions we will do our best to ensure you can remain on the programme.

PGCE Applicants

We will still need confirmation of your final results when they do become available (and before you can be awarded qualified teacher status (QTS)) and even if it turns out that you have not met your original offer conditions we will do our best to ensure you can remain on the programme.

If you have an offer for PGCE Secondary subjects Biology, Chemistry, Geography, Modern Foreign Languages, Maths, Physics or English, and hope to receive the government training bursary then we will not be able to confirm your eligibility for this award until we have received official confirmation of your final degree classification. The first payment of the bursary is due to be made in early October 2023. If we cannot confirm your bursary eligibility until later than this, you will still receive missed instalments at a later date as long as you meet the bursary requirements.

The requirements to achieve QTS are set by the Department for Education (DfE). When you receive your final degree classification, if you are not awarded a Bachelor Honours degree then it is likely that you will not be able to continue on the programme.

External Accrediting bodies

Some of our degree programmes are accredited by external bodies such as British Psychological Society (BPS) and Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). If your offer is for one of these programmes and your final degree classification is a long way below the entry requirements of the programme, then you might be unable to continue studying but we believe that this should be a rare and unlikely scenario.

International Applicants

If you are an international applicant currently completing their undergraduate degree at a university affected by the MAB, please contact our international team at internationaladmissions@stmarys.ac.uk who can provide advice.

We hope you enjoy the rest of the summer and look forward to welcoming you to St Mary’s in September.”