Give us our money back
Universities face demands to return fees as 3,000 locked- down students miss out on face- to-face teaching
STUDENTS and parents have started to demand tuition fee refunds as universities abandon face-to-face teaching because of Covid outbreaks.
Thousands of freshers are currently locked down in their rooms as rising cases of the virus devastates the start of term.
The intake has already endured the summer grading fiasco and some are now stuck inside while being charged up to £9,250-ayear in tuition fees, plus rent.
Larissa Kennedy, president of the National Union of Students, told the Mail on Sunday: ‘In what is looking set to be an increasingly unclear and volatile year for universities, we must seriously look at reimbursements for students whose quality of learning has been significantly impacted.
‘It is also essential that housing providers allow students who may decide to either leave university or return to family homes to end their rental contracts and not be penalised for making decisions based on their own safety and those of local communities.’
At least 32 universities in the UK now have confirmed coronavirus cases with about 3,000 students from Dundee to Exeter in isolation.
Some 1,700 Manchester Metropolitan University students have been confined to their rooms for two weeks, even if they have no symptoms. Police and security guards were
‘What a waste of £9,000. It is miserable for them’
outside Birley and Cambridge Halls on Friday while the university warned disciplinary action will be taken against any breaches.
Worried parents have travelled crosscountry to drop off provisions for their teenage offspring who complained they had very little time to buy food supplies.
Manchester Met has now shifted teaching to online only for foundation and firstyear students.
Liverpool Hope University and Liverpool John Moores have also moved the majority of teaching online as cases rise nationally.
Reports of positive tests and students isolating at Leeds University come as more students arrive for the start of term. A walkthrough testing centre has been set up in a sports centre on campus.
Jess Cook, a parent from Kent, whose son has just started at the institution, said: ‘What a waste of £9,000. It is miserable for them.
‘There should definitely be some kind of fee discount, but universities need support from the Government.
‘ Universities were under huge pressure to take the kids in and have done what they were supposed to do to try to keep them safe.’
In Scotland, thousands of students are isolating after 172 cases were confirmed at the University of Glasgow and 120 at Edinburgh Napier University.
Across the country, they have been told not to go to pubs, restaurants or parties and Universities Scotland has warned that students who socialise outside of their households risk losing their place.
At Edinburgh University, police were called to break up parties on Friday night at Pollock Halls, a main students’ residence housing about 1,900 undergraduates.
Glasgow University announced yesterday it would refund all students in halls of residence one month’s rent, along with a £ 50 payment for food. ‘We are offering everyone in our residences, regardless of whether they are isolating or not, a one-month rent refund to compensate for the disruption they are facing, and any financial hardship they may have encountered,’ the principal, Professor Sir Anton Muscatell said.
Calls are now growing for similar moves elsewhere. Robert Halfon, chairman of the Commons Education Committee, said: ‘Definitely they should be getting a discount on the cost of their tuition loan if they aren’t getting a significant amount of face-to-face teaching.’
He also warned that stopping students from returning home over the Christmas break would cause ‘huge anguish’.
Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, questioned the decision by some vice-chancellors to halt face-to-face teaching, saying: ‘ If teaching is moved online, it almost encourages students to go back home.’
He added that while calls for refunds grow, the difficulty for universities is that high-quality virtual teaching is no cheaper to deliver than in-person teaching and some universities are already under threat of going bust.