Government rejects calls to reimburse students for COVID-19 disruption

Students should not receive a universal reimbursement for tuition fees during the COVID-19 crisis, according to the UK Petitions Committee.

Photography by Photographic Team, UCL Media Services

The UK Petitions Committee has concluded that there should not be a “universal refund or reimbursement of tuition fees to all university students,” however, “students have a right to seek a refund or to repeat part of their course if the service provided by their university is substandard.” 

Published on July 13, the report comes after several petitions were filed through the UK Parliament Petitions website, which urged the government to reimburse all tuition fees for either the whole year or the third term, during which university campuses have been forced to close. 

In total, the three most popular petitions have garnered almost 600,000 signatures to date, whilst the largest one has received 348,192 signatures alone. The government responded to individual petitions earlier in the year, stating that they would not consider a blanket reimbursement. However, given the “significant support for petitions calling for students to be refunded their tuition fees,” the Petitions Committee also launched a full investigation into the effect of the pandemic on the university sector, to review the case for tuition fee refunds.

The largest petition was filed by Sophie Quinn, a final-year student at the University of Liverpool, who calls on the government to “reimburse all students of this year’s fees due to strikes and COVID-19.” The petition cites the current reliance on online PowerPoints for teaching, as well as the cancellation of field trips and the disruption caused by strikes earlier in the year, as reasons for which tuition fees should be refunded for the 2019/20 academic year. It also mentions that many students have paid in advance for term-time accommodation which they no longer need, thereby “adding to their student debt.”

In the report, the Petitions Committee acknowledges the widespread dissatisfaction from students regarding how university teaching has been handled online since the suspension of in-person teaching. It states that “the vast majority of students who responded told us that teaching hours at their university had fallen and they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with the quality of education they were currently receiving.” 

The report also recognises other challenges that distance learning presents: these include the inability to access university facilities, such as libraries and laboratories, and the inadequate study conditions that disadvantaged students may face at home, such as weak Wi-Fi or the lack of a quiet space.

However, the committee believes that tuition fees should not be universally reimbursed as they have “heard evidence that universities, lecturers and support staff have made tremendous efforts to continue to deliver university courses in uniquely challenging circumstances, and some students have continued to receive an excellent education.” This echoes the government’s own response that “students ordinarily should not expect any fee refund if they are receiving adequate online learning and support.” 

In the case of individual complaints, the government recommends that students register their complaint with their own university, and if it is not resolved satisfactorily, they have the right to ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) to consider their complaint.  

The Petitions Committee has suggested, however, that the complaints process requires reform, citing the low number of actual complaints received compared to the widespread dissatisfaction reported by many students with how universities have responded to the pandemic. The OIA reports that it has received less than 20 complaints related to disruption caused by COVID-19, whilst a survey of 10,000 students by the National Union of Students (NUS) found that 20 per cent of respondents did not agree that they were able to adequately access the online learning provided.

The report therefore calls on the government to “work with universities and the Office for Students to ensure that all students are advised of their consumer rights and are given clear guidance on how to avail themselves of these if they feel their university has failed to provide an adequate standard of education.”

In line with the government’s response to the petitions, UCL has stated on its Coronavirus FAQ webpage that students should not expect a tuition fee refund as long as the alternative online learning is adequate. But if UCL students wish to make a specific complaint, they have the right to file it through UCL Student Complaints Procedure, for which they will receive a response regarding its eligibility within 10 days of reception. 

This report comes amid warnings over the extent of the financial impact that the coronavirus pandemic will have on the university sector. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned that 13 universities - with a total of 130,000 students between them - could enter negative financial reserves by 2024. The higher education sector as a whole could suffer losses of between £3 and £19 billion. 

Separate research conducted by the London Economics think tank for the University and College Union (UCU) estimated in April that first-year enrolments in UK higher education could fall by over 200,000 in the next academic year - a 24 per cent decrease from the 2018/19 baseline. This would result in a 13 per cent loss in tuition fees, totalling £2.3 billion. 

In the face of these challenges, the government has announced that £2.6 billion in tuition fee payments will be brought forward from the next academic year, while £280 million in investment will be allocated to support university research. Long-term low-interest loans will be made available to cover up to up to 80 per cent of “income losses caused by any actual decline in international students,” which the report by London Economics estimates could equal 28,000 EU and 92,000 Non-EU students, a 47 per cent decrease from the 2018/19 baseline.