Warwick University students, here’s how you can claim compensation for strikes and Covid

Did you study at Warwick during the Covid-19 pandemic or strikes? If so, you, along with students from other UK universities, could be eligible to receive compensation for disruption to your degree.

UCL (University College London) has allegedly paid roughly 6,500 students and graduates £21 million, opting for an out-of-court settlement with Student Group Claim. This organisation, which over 170,000 students have now joined, is asking eligible students to sign up.

UCL released a statement, claiming: “UCL admitted no liability but agreed to settle so the matter could be resolved amicably and without further expense, which would have meant diverting valuable resources away from teaching, research, and supporting our students.”

Following this settlement, 36 UK unis (including the University of Warwick) received pre-action letters from Student Group Claim, notifying them that the organisation is going after compensation. Many other universities are on the group’s pre-registration form, but they haven’t been sent pre-action letters yet. Unis which aren’t on the list include: Cambridge, Durham, Oxford and St Andrews.

via Wikimedia Commons

Students paid on the basis that they would receive in-person teaching (which usually costs more than online classes) and also missed out on resources and facilities like libraries, studios, and labs. Student Group Claim’s website states that this means “Universities breached their contracts with students from 2018 onwards, in response to strikes and then Covid-19” and that “Students can claim financial compensation for these breaches of contract.”

35 per cent of any compensation won with the help of the Student Group Claim will go to the law firms. Another option is for students or grads to formally complain to their uni directly, and to complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator if this doesn’t go anywhere.

No matter whether SLC (Student Loans Company) or anyone else paid for the tuition fees, the compensation money isn’t a tuition fee refund, so it would go straight to the student.

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How to claim compensation for impacted teaching in Covid

There are two ways you could go about claiming compensation for impacted learning. First of all, you can reach out to the university’s formal complaint system. If you don’t feel your university responded to your complaint fairly, there are ways to make an official complaint about the way your complaint has been dealt with.

Or, to save yourself the hassle of making a complaint yourself, you could join the Student Group Claim using this form.

Read our full guide on how to claim compensation from Covid and strikes here.

Warwick University has been contacted for comment.

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Featured image via Wikimedia Commons