170,000 Students Bring Covid Compensation Claims Against 36 More Universities
A further 36 universities face legal action from more than 170,000 current and former students, who say they did not receive the full education they paid for during Covid. BBC News has the story.
It follows a settlement between University College London (UCL) and the Student Claim Group, which is now representing other students and graduates.
Legal letters have been sent to each of the 36 other institutions, warning that they intend to seek damages for learning which students claim they paid for but did not actually receive.
The government at the time said universities were responsible for setting their own fees, and that it expected them to continue to deliver a high-quality education.
UCL has not admitted any liability in its case and the details of the settlement remain confidential, with neither the institution nor lawyers for the students able to discuss it.
The case against UCL involved 6,000 students and was due to be heard in court in March.
However, the deal now appears to have opened the way for large-scale legal action against the university sector, which is being brought under consumer law.
During the pandemic, most university teaching shifted online for long periods of time, with students either returned home or locked down in university accommodation.
Access to shared facilities on campus was restricted, which caused particular anger among students whose courses involved providing specialist facilities for practical work.
Students on fine art or applied arts courses were particularly angry at the time.
It led to a huge sense of frustration among students who felt they were missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study and make lifelong friends.
Graduation ceremonies were virtual or delayed, and those leaving university were seeking their first graduate jobs in an economy recovering from the pandemic.
Shimon Goldwater, a partner in Asserson Solicitors, said the learning that students missed out on during Covid “was one of the great injustices to come out of the pandemic – and it’s never been remedied”.
The main part of the claim is about the difference in tuition fee price between courses delivered online and in person, and the BBC understands economic analysis of this will form the basis of the new claims.
“It’s very simple, in English law if you paid for a five-star holiday and received a one-star holiday, you are entitled to compensation,” Goldwater said.
The Student Group Claim argues this basic principle of consumer law overrides any clauses in university contracts which seek to absolve the institution from responsibility for disruption.
Worth reading in full.
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Yeah well great but who is ultimately going to pay these claims if they succeed? Not those responsible, for sure – they have not and will not pay with either money or any other kind of punishment. They get Knighthoods instead.
Universities have enough land and real estate that they can be selling off. If they have to stop functioning as universities as a result, good riddance to them.
Well yes but they get state subsidies in various forms….
You can be damn’ sure it’ll be the tax payers picking up the tab.
There can be no denying the fact that learners of all ages were severely disadvantaged by the lockdowns, but university students came off worse than most. Not only will they have missed out on the advanced learning opportunities for which they have paid, especially in subjects with a significant practical component, but they will also have missed out on the social and cultural activities that are almost as significant a part of the university experience as the courses themselves.
University is an opportunity to indulge in activities that were not available to students when they were still at school. It is also a chance to start experiencing life as an adult within a relatively safe and supportive environment. It is as much about personal development as it is about academic study.
Having suffered a diminished university experience (at a high financial cost), they were released into a shrinking job market, wondering how they would manage to find a decent job, repay their student loan, and start laying the foundations of a successful career.
They have my sympathy.
My daughter started at university in Sept 2020, it was an utterly miserable experience where they were only allowed to consort with people in their own flat, there were no social activities and all learning was online. At least she was not at one of those (in Manchester I think) where students were literally locked in their halls.
This of course after being denied all those rites of passage of leaving school after A levels. A first world problem maybe, but nonetheless unfair given that they were precisely the group at virtually zero risk from whatever it was we were supposedly being protected from. I wish the students well in their quest for compensation.
University is supposed to be about getting a good education and better chances in life, least it was when I went,yes you met new people, but you do in life, as for jobs, well perhaps if they got a decent useful degree, instead of a “mickey mouse” one, there probably would be jobs, appreciate no one wants to pay for something they didnt get, but thats a lesson they will have to learn very quickly, and who do they think will be “paying” their “compensation”?.at least it was at the end of their education, not the beginning, those are the children who really will have the problems.
I am tempted to say good for them, but with one caveat:
under the consumer credit act, you are entitled to what you pay for. Will this mean they get a degree whether they turn up or not in the grounds that they paid for it?
although actually they never will, because nine tenths won’t reach the repayment threshold or go abroad to avoid paying.
If a few ‘make believe’ Universities go the the wall over this then, on balance, this is a good thing.
With today’s Universities less is definitely more.
I don’t think that was the deal.
Teaching is what was supposed to be on offer. Learning is something the students are responsible for.
It’s good in a way. The more people who complain about the whole fiasco the better.
Never again. Never forget or forgive.
Good!
A legal challenge is the only way all this nonsense will be challenged and stopped!
Look at the results of a legal challenge to the cancellation of local elections, and a number of other actions! It seems to be the only way!
I have every sympathy with those students. The idiocy of
Students should be offered better student loan repayment terms for a start, definitely a reduction of repayments due. Removing the weight of debt from them would be very good for their mental health.
The students should also be claiming compensation for the harm inflicted upon them by the Covid injections. There was no informed consent given.Especially if they were mandated.