ON MONDAY 17TH JULY (1400) A HIGH COURT RULING WILL HAVE A MAJOR BEARING FOR STUDENTS IN THE NEXT STEPS OF THEIR JOINT LEGAL ACTION AGAINST UNIVERSITIES OVER COVID AND STRIKE DISRUPTION

Nearly 120,000 students have joined the Student Group Claim to seek an estimated £600m-£1bn in compensation from universities over disruption to their education during Covid and strikes.

The first claim commenced in the High Court against University College London and a hearing took place in May 2023. The judgment for that hearing is due to be handed down on Monday. It will impact the claims against the other universities targeted by Student

Group Claim, of which there are more than 100.

The collective legal action to date will be groundbreaking in terms of legal precedent and is likely to be one of the highest value group of breach of contract cases in English legal history.

Solicitors operating on a no-win-no-fee basis argue that during the Pandemic and strikes universities breached contracts with students by moving teaching online and cancelling or severely restricting access to facilities, without also giving students a fee reduction.

On Monday, the High Court ruling will decide if the students in their quest to be paid fair compensation will be forced to go through universities’ own internal complaints procedures, and if those fail to resolve the matter, the OIA ombudsman. It should be noted that to date no universities contacted by Student Group Claim have admitted any liability or paid compensation to the students who are part of the cases. Also, the OIA has no power to award compensation and can only make “recommendations” to universities about compensation payments.

Instead of the above processes, which are not appealing to students for obvious reasons, Student Group Claim has been arguing for more than a year that either alternative dispute resolution in the normal sense for litigation (ie, without prejudice mediations, round table meetings, negotiations, etc) or litigation in the court should be used to resolve these disputes. These suggestions have to date been roundly rejected by UCL and all other universities contacted by Student Group Claim.

University student and recent graduate case studies will be available for interviews, as well as lawyers representing the claim.

Available for live and pre-recorded interviews:

- Shimon Goldwater, lawyer from StudentGroupClaim.co.uk

- Ryan Dunleavy, lawyer from StudentGroupClaim.co.uk

- Student / graduate case studies

Notes to editors:

To arrange an interview, please contact:

alex.williamson@markettiers.com

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