Leeds University and Leeds Beckett students could claim back money from Covid and strikes

Both University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University have received a pre-action letter warning they are facing legal action over loss of teaching due to Covid and strikes.

The current and former students taking action claim they paid for a standard of education they did not receive during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This follows a recent settlement between University College London (UCL) and 6,500 student claimants, in which the university has agreed to pay out an estimated £21 million in compensation.

The claimants, represented by the organisation Student Group Claim, argued the quality of teaching they were promised was not delivered during the pandemic.

This was due to a lack of in-person teaching and limited access to university facilities. Despite these shortcomings, they still had to pay full university tuition fees.

Student Group Claim is now representing students from 36 other UK universities who are also seeking to claim compensation for the disruption to their teaching during the pandemic. This includes the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University, as well as many other major institutions such as The University of Manchester and Imperial College London.

On the organisation’s website, Student Group Claim said: “Students have been let down by their universities. They paid full fees for a university experience that were not sold. They’re frustrated, disillusioned, even angry.”

During the pandemic, as with almost all other institutions, University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University moved their teaching online for long periods of time.

Many students either returned home or were locked down in their student halls, unable to access the raved-about university experience of clubbing, socialising and attending lectures. They were also unable to access many university facilities such as libraries and science labs.

via Unsplash

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One student who attended the University of Leeds between 2018-2021 told The Leeds Tab that when the pandemic hit, she “went from being passionate about my degree, feeling inspired by my lecturers and peers to being completely dissociated from university.”

“The online teaching was rushed and poor quality and I no longer felt inspired by a course I was once so excited to learn”, she added.

“I felt completely unsupported and left to basically teach myself when I was promised teaching from some of the best minds in the field. Having almost a year and half of university online was not worth the £9,250 a year I paid and the fact I owe £60,000+ to student finance.”

Jessica, another student who attended the University of Leeds between 2020-2023, felt the experience she was given did not justify the full tuition fees.

She recalled how “in-person lectures and seminars were replaced by pre-recorded content or Zoom sessions, access to libraries and campus facilities was limited, and opportunities for discussion, networking and academic support were significantly diminished. Students were charged for a full university experience while receiving a largely self-directed form of remote learning.”

She also pointed out that institutions such as the Open University, which specialise in fully remote learning, charge much lower tuition fees than traditional universities with mainly in-person teaching.

There are currently 230,000 students seeking legal action over loss of teaching. Many of these claims are still in the very early stages, so it remains unknown whether they will see the same success as the action taken against UCL. The deadline for student claims relating to the Covid-19 pandemic is in September 2026.

Leeds University and Leeds Beckett have been contacted for comment.

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