MORE THAN 1,000 students gathered outside Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) yesterday in protest over the college’s failure to release the results of exams sat before Christmas.
Management and unions at WIT are involved in a dispute about the rates paid to lecturers for correcting exams at the end of each semester.
The row has resulted in lecturers refusing to turn in results and to draft or mark future exams until WIT agrees to honour a grievance procedure.
The Teachers Union of Ireland (TUI) said the college stepped outside the nationally agreed procedure in December when it “unilaterally” and “without consultation” cut the rate which had been paid since semesterisation was introduced at WIT five-years ago.
It is understood an administrative error occurred while semesterisation was being phased in at WIT resulting in lecturers receiving more than the rate paid by institutes of technology and that the Department of Education ordered that this be corrected.
TUI branch members last week voted in favour of industrial action, which has left 10,000 students unaware as to how they performed in their Christmas exams.
Members of the WIT Students’ Union and the Union of Students’ in Ireland yesterday held a demonstration and called for their exam results to be made available.
WIT Students’ Union president Cathy Pembroke said students did not want to be used as pawns in the stalemate.
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