Select committee: Petitions Committee
Recommendation 3
Second Report - The impact of Covid-19 on university students
Published 13 Jul 2020
Paragraph 23
Petitions Committee The Government's response to Coronavirus All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Students have a right to seek a refund or to repeat part of their course if the service provided by their university is substandard, but the exact circumstances in which students should expect to receive a refund or be able to repeat part of their course are not clear. Furthermore, given the scale of the disruption that has been caused by Covid-19—in addition to the strikes earlier in the year—and the numbers of students who may feel they are entitled to some form of reimbursement, it is not acceptable to expect individual students to seek satisfaction through existing complaints procedures or the courts. A new process needs to be put in place to consider complaints arising from Covid-19, and other out-of-the-ordinary events that affect the courses of large numbers of students, including large-scale strikes. The Government should work with the Office for Students and Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education to produce guidance on the circumstances in which university students are likely to be entitled to seek a refund or to repeat part of their course, and to establish a new system which enables all students to easily seek a full or partial refund of their tuition fees, or to repeat part of their course, based on an independent and objective assessment of the quality of education they have received over the academic year.
From: Petitions Committee, Second Report - The impact of Covid-19 on university students (HC 527), paragraph 23, 13 July 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 16 September 2020 (deadline 13 September 2020).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's finding against a universal tuition fee refund, but says a new centralised refund system is "not a preferred option at this time" and that any refund is a matter for providers.
- It "welcomes the Committee's finding" that there should not be a universal refund of tuition fees to all students.
- It agrees that the exact circumstances in which a student might receive redress are not clear, as this depends on contractual arrangements and individual circumstances. A Department for Education working group will consider whether existing guidance can be brought together and whether additional guidance is needed.
- On additional funding or reducing student loans to pay refunds, it says "Any refund is a matter for providers, so the Government is not considering writing off or reducing tuition fee loans."
- It states that the OIA is "currently developing a bespoke approach" to complaints from very large groups of students. It also agrees students should know their rights and is working with stakeholders to "explore existing communications channels".