We thought that strikes, walkouts and stoppages in the workplace belonged to a bygone era.

But management and unions in some parts of the teaching profession continue to dwell in the past, preferring confrontation to negotiation.

The problem is always the same it is not the two sides battling it out who suffer, but the public in between.

In the case of the dispute at Oxford's two universities, it is thousands of students who face disruption to their lives at the most sensitive time of the year: exam season.

Lecturers say they will withhold marks until their employer the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association meets their pay demands.

The bosses are refusing to budge and Oxford Brookes has now warned its staff to get marking or face losing their pay.

Both sides have expressed sympathy for the poor students, who have worked for months and years on their courses, only to find obstacles in their way.

Their words are unlikely to be of great comfort. It is time the two sides pulled back from the brink, sat round a table and got down to some serious negotiation.