Despite the action, the various departments really had been doing their best to make sure that as much ran as smoothly as possible. Obviously, how much they can do depends on how many people are striking. Certainly, Chemistry seemed to be doing well, if my brother being told his marks would be out on time was anything to by. I should also point out that some academics are pretty angry over the union’s decision to accept the pay deal.

Lots of opinions out there. But it’s good news for the students. The real sting in the tail is this: graduations go ahead as normal, but the academics who hadn’t started marking (as opposed to doing the sensible thing by marking as normal and simply withholding the marks) now have a hell of a lot of work to do over the next few days.