MPs debate student petitions for tuition fee refund

The Minister for Universities has ruled out a blanket tuition fee refund after MPs debated whether university students should be reimbursed in light of the disruption caused by Covid-19.

Source: UK Parliament

Last month, Members of Parliament debated several petitions which called for a university tuition fee refund as a result of the effect of Covid-19 on universities. In the debate, the Minister for Universities Michelle Donelan, defended the government’s statement that it would not offer a blanket tuition fee refund.

While MPs highlighted arguments such as the decreased quality of online learning, the impact on students’ mental health and the restrictive conditions in university accommodation, Donelan repeated the government’s previous statement that there are already systems in place for students to submit complaints for a refund, and that a blanket reimbursement would be ineffective. 

Although the petitions had previously received a government response at 10,000 signatures, they became eligible for debate in Parliament after they received 100,000 signatures. Despite the fact that the petitions had garnered over 980,000 signatures in total, only 11 MPs were in attendance (including the chair Chris Evans) for the debate on November 16.  

The return to university has been challenging as Covid-19 cases rose rapidly across university campuses and students who returned to university on the promise of in-person teaching have seen their courses transferred online. Kim Johnson (Labour, Liverpool Riverside) highlighted how “78 per cent of students surveyed reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with their learning experience.”

However, Donelan stated that “81 per cent of students were happy that they did not defer, and four-fifths agreed that although it is not how they expected their first university year to be, they valued their time there.” Donelan argued that there is already a process in place to follow “if students feel they have not got what they expected”, and as each student’s contractual agreement “will differ per institution, a blanket system of refunds would not necessarily work.” 

Esther McVey (Conservative, Tatton) noted that neither the government nor universities are keen to shoulder the responsibility for the tuition fee debate as “the university has claimed tuition fees are a government issue; the government are saying they are a university issue; people are asking the government to clarify who is responsible. If both university and government are responsible, how and when will the issue be resolved?” 

According to Donelan, the government's involvement ends at setting the maximum level of tuition fees, and “if higher education providers want to continue to charge the maximum, they must ensure that the quality, quantity and accessibility of tuition is maintained.”

While Claudia Webbe (Labour, Leicester East) highlighted that “20 per cent of students have confirmed they will not be able to pay their rent and essential bills this term”, Donelan argued that a reduction in tuition fees “would make little difference to the money in students’ pockets” as roughly only 10 per cent of students pay their fees outright. She also states other facilities would be affected by a tuition fee refund, such as mental health services, study spaces and library resources, as “tuition fees do cover much more than simply teaching.”

Bell Ribeiro Addy (Labour, Streatham) argued that “it is ludicrous to expect students to continue paying extortionate tuition fees when they are not receiving a full service” and that the government should eventually scrap tuition fees altogether. Donelan disagreed with “the suggestion that all students are being let down. Tuition does look different, because we are in the midst of a global pandemic, but different does not have to mean inferior.” 

The government maintains that students can submit a complaint to their individual university or to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) if they believe their online learning has been inadequate. Nevertheless, the Petitions Committee has admitted that this complaints process must be improved and that students should be made better aware of their “consumer rights” with regard to the quality of their higher education.

While there is support for tuition fee refunds amongst students and some politicians, it is unclear whether such a measure would actually alleviate the financial hardships faced by students during the past year. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has argued that tuition fee refunds would only benefit some, since such a small percentage of university students pay their fees outright and so would be directly reimbursed. For the majority of students, a tuition fee refund would only reduce their overall debt post-graduation, which more than 50 percent of students will never fully pay back in any case.