Foreign students want fees refund
Anger after lecturers’dispute disrupts learning
Students who pay to study at Stirling University this week demanded a refund after classes were cancelled because of the lecturers’ dispute.
About 300, attending the university, have signed a petition backed by hundreds of students across the UK demanding partial repayment of the fees paid for lost-learning opportunities during the stoppage.
Last week, Universities Minister for the Westminster Government Sam Gyimah backed their stance.
He called for fee-paying students to either receive a refund on tuition fees or have cancelled lectures re-arranged.
Members of the University and Colleges Union are currently taking part in 14 days of action in a national dispute over pensions.
Lecturers at Stirling University joined the strike last week and began another four days of action from Monday. A five-day walk-out is planned from this coming Monday and a further two days of action is due to take place.
While Scottish students and those from the European Community don’t pay tuition fees here, people coming from other parts of the United Kingdom and countries outside the European Community to study have to cough up.
Student from China Yuanjuan Wei, paid £15,000 for a course in which she is learning how to teach English to speakers of another language.
The 26-year-old, who is six months into the course, said they received no tuition last week and expect no teaching this week and next week.
“Students are really angry about this,” she added. “Some, such as international business students, have paid £20,000 for their course, but they are getting no teaching and information from the university is not flowing.
“I know a few students, who pay their fees in instalments,and they are threatening to withhold their next instalment.”
The petition reads: “We demand compensation of our Tuition Fees for every paying student who loses lecture, seminar and access to faculty staff due to the strike action.”
Ms Wei said they had written to principal Professor McCormac about the issue but had not yet received a response from him. However, bosses at the university have declined to issue a refund. They insist their priority is to ensure all students are provided with “appropriate opportunities to achieve the learning outcomes attached to each module and programme of study”.
Ms Wei said: “How can they say that they have provided us with appropriate opportunities when we don’t have classes, lectures or seminars to attend?
“We want them to respond to us and apologise and not just a diplomatic reply but individually, to our emails.”
Michael Zhang, in charge of overseas citizens protection at the Chinese Consulate in Edinburgh, said they had more than 10,000 students from the country studying in universities in Scotland and a small number had contacted them regarding the stoppage.
“This is a dispute not only in Scotland but also England and our embassy has given some suggestions on how to resolve the difficulties, but for the consulate and embassy it is complicated as it is a problem with the policy and laws of the UK.” he added.
“Not all teachers have stopped their work and not all classes have stopped. The universities understand the situation and want to limit the effect of the strike.”
UCU Scotland Official Mary Senior added: “We have every sympathy with fee-paying students and in a funding system that treats them as consumers, it’s not surprising that they are calling for their fees to be refunded.
“Its important that students angry at their classes being cancelled take it up with their principal because it is the principals alone who have the power to resolve this dispute and get university staff back where they want to be, working with and teaching students.”