Nearly 90,000 students have now joined a joint claim to try and get some of their tuition fees refunded due to disruption to their education during Covid lockdowns and restrictions.
In what is thought to be one of the largest joint litigations ever in the UK, it focuses on students enrolled during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022, along with others who had learning affected by strike action from 2018 onwards.
UK students pay £9,250 per year for undergraduate courses and more for graduate courses; while international students pay up to £40,000 per year. Those leading the legal action say like any other consumers, they deserved compensation when they received substantially less valuable services than those for which they paid.
Many students who are part of the action, especially those on practical-based courses, claim they feel their quality of education was severely hampered by having to switch on online only learning, often for whole terms at a time.
