Students taking legal action against UCL for the teaching they received during strikes and the pandemic have called on the institution to settle the case after claiming an initial victory in the courts.
UCL – which has been accused of a “breach of contract” in a lawsuit that might have implications for 100 other providers – argued at a hearing in May that the claim brought by 924 of its students should be dealt with by its own internal procedures and then the sector ombudsman, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA), before being considered by the court.
But in a written judgment issued on 17 July, Judge Barbara Fontaine said she would not be ruling that the claimants be forced down this route.
She has, however, granted an eight-month stay in proceedings to allow the parties to “engage constructively in some form of ADR [alternative dispute resolution]”, which should involve “serious attempts by both parties to find a compromise”.
