Universities may have to pay £10m each as students sue
MORE than 1,000 students from some of the UK’S biggest universities have launched collective legal action that could see universities pay out millions in compensation for lost teaching time during recent lecturer strikes.
The law firm behind the group actions believe institutions, including Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Manchester, could end up paying out as much as £10million each.
It comes after staff from 64 universities around the UK were hit by 14 days of strikes in a dispute over pensions.
When the action collected 1,000 signatures, it triggered the number needed to apply for a Group Litigation Order. It is expected that more students could sign up too.
According to lawyers, a quarter of those who signed up are overseas students. The most number of signatories have come from the University of Manchester.
Members of the University and College
‘Paying about £500 compensation each to 20,000 students would cost around £10 million’
Union (UCU) staged a wave of strikes in February and March as part of a bitter dispute over changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), a major pension scheme.
The UCU called off further action earlier this month after members accepted new proposals put forward by Universities UK.
Students can sign up on a website set up by Asserson, a specialist law firm, which would mean all the individual claims could be grouped together and heard at the same time if a lawsuit goes ahead.
Shimon Goldwater, a senior solicitor at the firm, said the decision on how to proceed will be taken in the next few weeks, and it is likely that if a case is brought, it would be “a set of 10 to 20 universities that we would be suing”.
Which universities are involved is likely to depend on which students come forward, he said. He claimed that institutions could have to pay out millions of pounds.
“Over 20,000 undergraduates attend each large UK university,” he said. “Paying about £500 compensation each to 20,000 students would cost around £10million.”