Academic staff at 69 of the UK’s top universities, including Oxford and Cambridge, are planning to boycott the setting and marking of formal assessments.

The boycott willl begin on 6th November 2014 and continue indefinitely, posing a potential threat to summer exams.

The University and College Union (UCU) are set on fighting changes to academics’ pensions, even if it means putting at risk the degrees of tens of thousands of students.

In a ballot which saw the highest ever turnout for the University and College Union (45 per cent), 78 per cent of members who voted supported strike action while a staggering 87 per cent of members supported action that was short of a strike. This could extend to include actions such as the boycotting of marking and setting summer examination papers.

The controversy arose due to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which is responsible for providing pensions for academics at top institutions, threatening to significantly cut pensions by as much as 27 per cent.

Aside from the threat of cuts, USS was also criticised over the way in which they, apparently misleadingly, explained the changes to pensions.

UCU’s actions may prompt student action against the pension cuts. Some students protested in solidarity with lecturers last year.

CUSU supported previous strikes and industrial action led by academics and lecturers throughout 2014 and 2013. The president in 2014, Flick Osborn, stated that “We believe that lecturers and staff should be fairly remunerated to continue providing excellent education at the University of Cambridge.”

Whilst some students are understandbly cheered by the prospect of Tripos exams being postponed or cut altogether this summer, others are concerned that their degrees will be jeaopardised by industrial action, if any is taken.

Jack Lewy, a Human, Social and Political Sciences fresher at Trinity Hall, already feels “concerned” that the considerable amount of time he has so far spent working towards his Tripos exams may have been all but “wasted” if an academic strike were go to ahead.

Final year undergraduates are at more risk as their overall degree classification could be jeopardised if exams are indeed cancelled.

Despite concerns about summer exams, UCU have in fact organised a meeting with university employers for 7th November to discuss their proposals.

It is the second time this year that academics and lecturers have considered industrial action.

In February the UCU again threatened to impose “the ultimate sanction” over a 1 per cent pay rise for university staff, claiming that staff had experienced a pay fall of around 13 per cent over the last few years.

However, by May UCU and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) announced jointly that the pay dispute had come to an end. Summer Tripos examinations continued as normal in the months of May and June.

Similar threats were also made in 2006 and 2011, although there has never been any direct effect on examinations, even though 77 per cent of members voted in support of a “sustained campaign of industrial action” in 2011.