Students in ‘pay’ claim after strikes
MORE than 1,000 students, including at least 45 in Wales, have signed a collective legal action hoping to force universities to pay compensation for teaching time lost during the recent strike.
The international law firm behind the group action says universities could face paying £10m each in compensation.
Across the UK, 64 universities, including four in Wales, were hit by 14 days of walk-outs by members of the University College Union in a row over pensions.
The strike has been suspended but students, many of whom supported staff fighting for their pension rights, say they have lost valuable tuition time they paid for.
Support for legal action includes students from Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol. Manchester University tops the list with most student sign-ups while Cardiff comes sixth in the UK with 44 sign ups.
Achieving 1,000 sign ups means that the group claim has enough students to apply for a Group Litigation Order. Lawyers say they will apply for this now and also expect signatories to snowball.
The other universities in Wales hit by the strike were Bangor and the University of Wales Trinity St David. It is not known if students from those have signed.
Cardiff University student David Netherwood said he signed the group action because he is angry students are not being treated as consumers.
He said some of his lectures and seminars were cancelled and work not marked during the strike. Rearranged teaching was shortened.
The post graduate planning practice student said: “We are not being treated as consumers but a university degree is a consumer good and should be treated as such.
“Seminars key for our course work were re-delivered after the strike to a poorer standard. What should have been a two-hour seminar was one hour.
“I am angry. For me it’s about the principle and the fact we’ve not been treated as consumers. We want our voices heard. We don’t feel this has been recognised.”
Shimon Goldwater, a senior solicitor at Asserson, the specialist law firm that has created the compensation claim website, said: “If the class action is accepted, universities would pay out millions of pounds. Over 20,000 undergraduates attend each large UK university. Paying approximately £500 compensation each to 20,000 students would cost £10m.
The Collective Court Action claim would likely be for breach of contract to seek damages for lost teaching time.
A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “Our current position regarding potential compensation is clear, the point at which a student should seek to make a complaint in relation to the impact of the industrial action will be at the end of the academic year, following the application of the mitigating measures.
“If at this stage a student remains dissatisfied they can submit a complaint through the University Complaints Procedure which allows financial compensation as one of a number of remedies.”
Aberystwyth University said in a statement: “As part of careful contingency planning, missed teaching is either being rescheduled within a reasonable time or other mitigating actions put in place. By doing so, our aim is to ensure students are not disadvantaged and are able to achieve the learning outcomes of their modules and degree programmes.”