Students take victory: Step closer to compensation for students who lost out during the pandemic
A student group claim seeking compensation from over one hundred UK universities has just won a right to access the court system rather than go through unis internal complaints procedure. They're looking for institutions to take responsibility for the disruption caused during the lecturers' strikes and the Covid nineteen pandemic.
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00:00 The isolation, especially when measured against the expectations that we've been led to have,
00:07 was incredible. Universities like UCL put you under an enormous amount of pressure to
00:12 get all of that work done in one year and to have that pressure and no social environment
00:20 to let off that pressure and then to share with others was really, really difficult from
00:25 an emotional perspective.
00:28 Thousands of university students at more than 100 UK universities are taking part in action
00:33 against their institutions seeking damages. They've joined after paying between Ā£9,250
00:40 and Ā£40,000 per year for reduced timetables and lessons that were cancelled or moved online
00:46 during lecturer strikes and the coronavirus pandemic. If successful, students are estimated
00:52 to win compensation of about Ā£5,000 for UK students and several multiples of this figure
00:57 for international students who paid much higher fees.
01:01 What you pay for, for a regular university course, not an online course or a distance
01:05 learning course, a regular university course, you expect to receive and you deserve to receive
01:11 in-person teaching and access to facilities like libraries, laboratories and study spaces
01:19 on campus. And during COVID and when the lecturers have been on strike, that is not what has
01:24 happened. Classes have been cancelled, teaching has been moved online for whole terms of the
01:29 time often and access to things like libraries have been restricted or the libraries have
01:35 just been closed during COVID.
01:37 What has the response been like from the universities and those organisations? Have they been willing
01:42 to work with you or has there been a lot of pushback here?
01:44 There's been a hard pushback. The very first claim which we've issued is against University
01:49 College London and at that court hearing UCL is seeking to block the claim from proceeding
01:55 in court and they're saying that students should be forced to go through their own complaints
02:00 procedure first.
02:02 Representatives at UCL wanted students to use their own internal complaints procedure
02:07 but the students disagreed. Now a judge has ruled in favour of those students. UCL has
02:13 four months to engage in settlement discussions and if the claims are not settled, they will
02:18 continue onwards to a trial.
02:21 Students in this country, whether you believe in that model or not, are made to be consumers.
02:25 They purchase education as a service and we believe that we have rights to receive that
02:31 service as it was promised, just as any other consumer. And so we're very pleased that the
02:35 judge has seen that and allowed these claims to proceed in the courts, which is the proper
02:40 forum to deal with them.
02:41 John Taylor Casey, on behalf of UCL, one of the major universities involved, said in written
02:46 arguments that procedures for complaints already in place were fair, transparent and accessible
02:52 and a court case was not warranted. He also said it was implied UCL was targeted for a
02:57 pilot group claim because it was wealthy and profited from students' fees. He warned more
03:02 claims would follow.
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