£400,000 from the UCU strikes will be reinvested into Warwick’s student services

Yesterday evening, Warwick SU announced that roughly £400,000 generated through UCU members not receiving their salaries during the period of industrial action, largely occurring within the second academic term, will be "directly reinvested in services which benefit students."

The SU stated that this sum will be divided between two key funding areas: the student hardship fund and the creation of additional study spaces around campus.

The student hardship fund is accessible to both undergraduate and postgraduate students and is "intended to provide selective help to students who have serious financial difficulties."

This reallocation of resources, according to Warwick SU, can be attributed to the "sustained lobbying by the Sabbatical Officer team."

The Student Union have commented that this is a separate issue from the reimbursement of tuition fees, stating that they will continue to lobby for "tuition fee money to be returned to students who were affected by the loss of teaching, as mandated by the policy "Warwick SU for Returning Tuition Fees from Strike Days" passed at the last ASM."

The UCU strikes, which disrupted teaching at Warwick and universities nation-wide, meant students lost weeks-worth of teaching, whilst still raking up thousands of pounds worth of debt and revising for exams commencing in third term. This is certainly a good start by the SU and Warwick University, however much more will need to be done in order to fix the burnt hole in the back pocket of many students.