For those at university from 2020 to 2023, it has been a series of unfortunate events. Kicking off Freshers Week with the university closing was a poor start to say the least, and though it seemed things were looking up by the time second year came around, lecturer strikes had other plans. There were around five weeks of strikes for affecting the 2021-22 academic year, with more to follow this year. During terms like the spring one, which are only 8 weeks long, this has a catastrophic effect on the quality of learning.
The Student Group Claim has set the ball rolling on legal action against at least 18 of the UK’s most prestigious Universities. They are operating this service on a no-win-no-fee basis, aiming to gain financial compensation for students for the reduced quality of teaching during Covid-19.
For the lockdown learners of 2020 much, if not all, of their course was delivered online. Despite this, students were still charged the full annual tuition fee of up to £40,000 for international students and £9,250 for those from the UK.
It was not made clear to students prior to enrolment that online learning would be the predominant experience of first year. On 22 September 2020, as freshers entered their first weeks at university, Boris Johnson said in a statement to the House of Commons that “schools, colleges and universities will stay open – because nothing is more important than education”. Universities shut weeks later.
There are plenty of online universities which charge significantly lower fees. If students had not been misled about what universities being ‘open’ would really mean, perhaps they would have opted for this instead. The very fact that online courses charge significantly less is proof that the cost to the university is reduced when online; should the fees be too?
Third year English Languages student at the University of Sheffield, Melanie Mavromatis, said: “It was incredibly hard to receive that quality of education during Covid. I’m sure lecturers tried their best but there is no substitute for face-to-face teaching, especially in practical subjects.
“I also feel like having my first year in Covid meant that I made very few course friends, something which still affects my learning now, as there is no one I can discuss my work with.”
But the reduced learning opportunities did not end alongside lockdowns. Strikes have continued to disrupt learning to an already affected cohort.
Though measures have been put in place to lessen the impact of this on learning, such as reducing assessed content, this does not change the lack of service received. Consider the general principle behind the providing of any service: if you pay, you receive it in full entirety. Many would certainly see university teaching in this light.
As a Politics and Sociology student, my contact hours in third year are already very low at four hours per week. However, due to strikes, I have missed entire weeks of university at a time, and in two modules I am only set to receive half of the original topics within the module. This is not what I expected when choosing these modules, or this university. Though reducing the assessed content seems to aid the effects of this, it also means that in some cases the topics which I was most interested in learning about, or picked the module for, will be completely ignored. It seems fair that there should be some recognition of the effect of this throughout the two years.
This is not to say this strike action is unjustified. The action is based on four main issues: unfair pay, stressful workloads, equality pay gaps and uncertain work contracts. Many would agree that these are all valid concerns that need to be met by university employers. However, this is also not due to any fault of students themselves, and so, it can be argued that fees should reflect this.
UCU members themselves encourage students to seek compensation through the Universities Complaint Procedure. By seeking compensation and reporting how it has disrupted learning, it means that the issues brought up by the strikes are also more likely to be resolved. In this way it benefits both parties.
If we are to say that the lockdowns, and the strikes, were and are justified (as many would say they are), this does not change the fact that current third years have received less than half of the teaching their fees cover. Though amends have been introduced through compensation for strikes taking place this year, this is only the beginning. Arguably, this compensation could be deposited immediately, to all students affected, without a need to apply. Solid plans on how to compensate for the lack of teaching in first and second year could also be made. It is the compilation of all three years that has caused such a massive effect on current third-years’ university experience, and this should be recognised.