Lacking out on college due to the UCU strikes? In case your lessons are disrupted, you may be entitled to an honest quantity of compensation.
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After spending eye-watering quantities of cash on tuition charges and residing prices, many college students can be painfully conscious of the price of every class they’ve missed throughout the varied UCU strikes.
When you’re fascinated by formally complaining in regards to the strikes, you may nicely be joined by many others doing the identical. In 2019 and 2020, the OIA (the official physique for scholar complaints – extra information about them beneath) obtained document numbers of complaints, and amongst them have been complaints associated to industrial motion.
When you’re sad in regards to the influence of the strikes in your research, here is how you can complain and probably get compensation.
Why are college lecturers placing?
The economic motion is being led by the College and Faculty Union (UCU). Though numerous the folks placing are teachers and lecturers, UCU members additionally embrace directors, laptop employees, librarians, postgrads and extra.
On the affected universities, employees are placing over USS pensions, working situations and points concerning pay.
When are the UCU strikes?
Strike motion is because of happen at 68 universities within the UK in February 2022.
These are the dates of the strikes, primarily based on the employees members’ causes for placing:
- 14th – 18th February: USS pension dispute solely (impacts 44 establishments)
- twenty first – twenty second February: Each disputes (impacts 68 establishments)
- twenty eighth February – 2nd March: Pay and dealing situations dispute solely (impacts 63 establishments).
There’s additionally resulting from be industrial motion wanting a strike on the universities affected by strikes, plus at a further six establishments. It will contain uni employees working strictly to their contract and refusing any extra duties.
Which universities are affected by the strikes?
These are the 68 universities the place lecturers are resulting from go on strike in February 2022:
| College | Dispute |
|---|---|
| Aston College | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Bathtub | USS pensions |
| Birkbeck, College of London | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Birmingham | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Bradford | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Brighton | Pay and situations |
| College of Bristol | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Cambridge | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Chester | Pay and situations |
| Metropolis, College of London | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Courtauld Institute of Artwork | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Dundee | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Durham College | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Edinburgh | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Edinburgh Napier College | Pay and situations |
| College of Essex | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Glasgow | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Glasgow College of Artwork | Pay and situations |
| Goldsmiths, College of London | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Greenwich College | Pay and situations |
| Heriot-Watt College | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Imperial Faculty London | USS pensions |
| Institute of Improvement Research | USS pensions |
| Keele College | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Kent | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| King’s Faculty London | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Kingston College | Pay and situations |
| College of Lancaster | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Leeds | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Leicester | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Liverpool | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Liverpool Hope College | Pay and situations |
| London College of Economics | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| London College of Hygiene and Tropical Drugs | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Loughborough College | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Manchester | Pay and situations |
| Manchester Metropolitan College | Pay and situations |
| Newcastle College | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Northampton | Pay and situations |
| Northumbria College | Pay and situations |
| College of Nottingham | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Open College | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Oxford Brookes College | Pay and situations |
| Queen Margaret College | Pay and situations |
| Queen Mary, College of London | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Queen’s College Belfast | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Studying | USS pensions |
| Roehampton College | Pay and situations |
| Royal Faculty of Artwork | Pay and situations |
| Royal Holloway, College of London | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Royal Northern Faculty of Music | Pay and situations |
| College of Salford | Pay and situations |
| College of Sheffield | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Sheffield Hallam College | Pay and situations |
| SOAS, College of London | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of St Andrews | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Stirling | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Strathclyde | USS pensions |
| College of Sussex | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| Swansea College | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| UAL (College of the Arts London) | Pay and situations |
| UCA (College for the Inventive Arts) | Pay and situations |
| UCLan (College of Central Lancashire) | Pay and situations |
| UCL (College Faculty London) | Pay and situations |
| College of Ulster | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
| College of Westminster | Pay and situations |
| Writtle College Faculty | Pay and situations |
| College of York | Pay, situations and USS pensions |
Further universities affected by motion wanting a strike
Along with the 68 unis affected by strikes, employees at these six universities are taking motion wanting a strike:
- Bishop Grosseteste College
- Bournemouth College
- Leeds Trinity College
- Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts
- St Mary’s College Faculty Belfast
- College of Winchester.
Easy methods to declare compensation over the UCU strikes
Credit score: fizkes – Shutterstock
When you resolve to complain in regards to the UCU strikes, your first step ought to be to strategy your uni. They are able to give you some type of compensation, with out you needing to take the criticism any additional.
In 2019, a UCU spokesperson mentioned:
College students ought to […] be demanding that universities put the enormous sums of cash they are going to save from not paying employees throughout the strike into student-facing actions.
And Jake Butler, Save the Pupil’s scholar cash professional, mentioned:
In 2018, 575,000 instructing hours have been misplaced to strikes, hitting college students arduous in misplaced charges, disruption to grades, and stress.
Given the £9,250 a 12 months charges and quantity of stress there’s on college students to carry out nicely at college, it is greater than affordable to make a declare.
The College of Kent is an efficient instance of a college that is beforehand paid college students compensation over the strikes. In 2018, they supplied final-year undergraduate £50 vouchers following industrial motion.
And, in response to a report by The Impartial in 2020, King’s Faculty London had refunded a complete of over £640,000 to greater than 500 college students, with the quantities paid to people starting from £122 to £4,500.
Compared, the identical report says that College Faculty London (UCL) had solely paid out round £6,000 between eight college students after they’d complained.
In case your college refuses to give you compensation (or affords you lower than you suppose is truthful), you may have the choice of taking the criticism additional. However, the organisation you’d strategy subsequent would depend upon whereabouts within the UK you are learning.
Ombudsmen for scholar complaints
When you’re in England or Wales and also you wish to take your criticism past the college, you may strategy the Workplace of the Impartial Adjudicator for Increased Schooling (OIA).
In Scotland, you may take complaints to the Scottish Public Companies Ombudsman (SPSO).
And, in Northern Eire, it is the Northern Eire Public Companies Ombudsman (NIPSO).
If the ombudsman thinks your criticism is justified, they are going to then advise your college on what they need to do subsequent (i.e. whether or not or not they need to provide college students compensation and the way a lot).
So long as you may have a robust sufficient case, you may be entitled to a reasonably sizeable payout. For instance, in 2018, the OIA suggested one college to offer a world scholar £1,283.75 over the commercial motion.
This was as a result of, when the scholar initially complained about their misplaced contact hours as a result of industrial motion, their uni had referenced a ‘power majeure’ clause in response to the criticism. This clause mainly signifies that, in the event that they face points outdoors of their management, they are not obliged to hold out their contractual guarantees.
However, as the scholar hadn’t been conscious of this clause beforehand, the OIA referenced the patron safety laws as a motive the scholar might be entitled to compensation.
To sum up: for those who suppose it is best to get compensation over the UCU strikes, strategy your uni first to see what they’ll give you – then think about taking the criticism additional for those who’re sad with their response.
Need extra recommendations on how you can complain and get outcomes? Our helpful information will assist.
