Universities

Lightning360

I am hearing time and time again that the quality of teaching and other services at universities currently isn't worth the money that students are paying, yet it seems extremely hard for students to get refunds for either their course or accommodation they are being told not to use. How is this right? Students are paying for a service they aren't being provided with. Even worse was the fact universities were completely misleading in September about how much in-person teaching there would be. How come students have been forgotten in all of this? Surely the government should step in and help provide at least a partial refund of fees?

[Deleted User]

Surely not.

It would be a discussion between the student and their university if they feel that they are no longer being taught the course they applied for.

Lightning360

Deleted_User said:

Surely not.

It would be a discussion between the student and their university if they feel that they are no longer being taught the course they applied for.

Which sounds easy, but really isn't. Why do students have so few rights when the product they are paying for isn't being delivered?

[Deleted User]

They have the same rights as everyone else. But they need to pursue them.

Lightning360

Deleted_User said:

They have the same rights as everyone else. But they need to pursue them.

Which like I said, is incredibly difficult.

Lightning360

This is just one article I found about the process to get refunds Students demand tuition fees refund — but university watchdog has barely started work on complaints from March lockdown (inews.co.uk)

tooldle

If a student believes that the promised service has not been provided, their first port of call is their University. Can you explain your process for assessing ‘teaching and services’ as not being worth the money that has been paid? This document from Universities UK might be helpful in explaining how provision is funded https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Documents/2016/university-funding-explained.pdf

Barny1979

OP are you a student?

Aylesbury_Duck

Lightning360 said:

Deleted_User said:

Surely not.

It would be a discussion between the student and their university if they feel that they are no longer being taught the course they applied for.

Which sounds easy, but really isn't. Why do students have so few rights when the product they are paying for isn't being delivered?

Playing Devil's Advocate, is it not being delivered?  If the teaching hours are being covered (albeit remotely) and they are attaining credits and a degree at the end, how can you say the product isn't being delivered?

The other issue is that they aren't "paying for" it either.  Yet.  Some overseas students may be cash buyers but UK students aren't - they will pay back their loans once they are earning over the threshold (which I think is £26k at the moment?).  It makes it somewhat different to a standard business-consumer relationship.  If they get value from their degree, i.e. it leads to a job paying over the threshold, then they start paying back their loans.  

If the university is not providing accommodation but still charging for it, that's a different matter, because accommodation contracts are normal consumer contracts, but I'm not aware of any university putting their accommodation out of use and holding the students to their accommodation contracts.

ToxicWomble

My wife works for a uni and to be honest has been busier in the last 6 months than ever.
Making face to face content into a medium suitable for remote teaching is no small matter and very time consuming.
Along with the pastoral aspect she has frequently been doing 60+ hrs a week 
The biggest hurdle is actually getting the students to engage with this method of lecturing.
They complain that uni isnt safe and then complain that online content isn’t any good.
Its a no win situation that jumping up and down about how you future is being ruined or that you aren’t getting the “experience” that you expected —- tough.
Imo you are getting a far better life experience- get on with it and get over yourselves.
Uni isn’t compulsory - if you don’t like it then leave and go and get a job

sammyjammy

My neighbours girls both did/are doing Open University courses instead of Uni, enabled them to get part-time jobs at home which supported their choice of degree/career, they still pay the tuition fees but no additional accommodation costs as both are still at home, they are both sensible and mature enough not to need the "University experience"