Scarborough students demand refund

An online petition which has attracted over 400 signatures is demanding a refund for the students who are studying at the Scarborough campus.

According to the petition, students want the refund in order to reflect the “cuts in the level of service”.  They are arguing over paying the £9,000 tuition fees for the poor experience they are experiencing as the Scarborough campus begins to close.

The decision to close the Scarborough campus was made in April 2014.

A Scarborough student told The Guardian: “It’s becoming clear they’re moving the staff to Hull and slowly our access to our academic staff – which is what the campus is sold to you on the back of – is being eroded.

“Increasingly, there’s empty offices that previously housed academics who were here to support us. Increasingly, people are disappearing.

“It’s a nightmare from the students’ point of view. We know we’re coming to a small campus and there’s good aspects of that: you end up knowing everybody, it’s very friendly, access to lecturers and tutors historically has been brilliant – or that’s what it’s sold to you as.”

They added: “People haven’t got access to their personal tutors because they’re in Hull three days out of five.

“It’s depressing. We just want it to end now because it’s hard enough doing your finals, let alone doing them in a depressing atmosphere where you feel like you’re being hard done by. That is the consensus of how people feel: it’s tough and they’re taking the piss, frankly.”

This dissatisfaction has been reflected in the Student Experience Survey. The university has dropped 30 places, from 44th to 74th, since the announcement of the closure two years ago.

Scarborough employees have also complained that the campus, which next year will house only one final year undergraduate, has become “a ghost town”. In 2010, there was a student population of around 1,800. This year Scarborough has house only 600 students.

Up to 30 administrative employees face redundancy following the move.

There is also anger directed towards the University vice-chancellor Professor Calie Pistorius. Pistorus made the decision to close down the Scarborough Campus.

“The campus and the town of Scarborough have been hung out to dry by a bungling vice-chancellor who hides behind his junior staff and hasn’t got the guts to appear before his own students”, one university employee told The Guardian.

“He’s destroyed a successful education community in a town whose economy is already precarious. It’s heart-wrenching for everyone associated with the campus.”

Pistorius has also failed to attend the past two graduation ceremonies.