‘Our children are being treated like cannon fodder’

Parents’ anger at the plight of students

SICKENED parents have accused universities of treating their offspring as expendable cash cows during the pandemic.

Students have struggled with their mental health, paying for accommodation they cannot use and switching to online learning.

The Daily Express is backing their desperate pleas for better treatment with our Fair Deal For Students crusade.

Andy Soteriou, whose son, 18, dropped out of Nottingham University at Christmas, is calling for tuition refunds from those “clearly not offering the same service” as before Covid struck.

The North London father, whose daughter is in her second year at Loughborough, said:

“Universities have a duty of care. They were more interested in getting pupils back to uni and hoovering up the fees than the care.

“Our children were cannon fodder for Boris Johnson’s Cabinet sending all the kids back.

“This generation are going to be paying back the money Rishi Sunak’s borrowed – and the double whammy will be students aren’t getting any real value out of studies.

“They’re going to have to pay those back at a six per cent premium as well.”

Rob McBride, whose daughters aged 21 and 18 are studying from the family’s Shropshire home, said: “It sticks in the craw when some vice-chancellors and senior management are still on massive salaries.” Some universities have told students not to return until at least autumn, including London School of Economics, Edinburgh University and St Andrews in Fife.

Labour MP Paul Blomfield, who leads a group of MPs and peers looking into student support, blamed “mismanagement” of the winter Covid wave for extending restrictions further into 2021 than expected.