Students who have missed teaching due to strikes can submit a complaint, which, if successful, will give them a tuition fee refund. The deadline for any complaint concerning the 2022/23 academic year is Friday 23 June 2023.
Over the last two terms, there have been 15 days of UCU strike action. For a university course with 21 weeks, that represents up to 14% of the year’s education being lost.
For domestic students who are not self-funded, the refund will be communicated to the Student Loans Company and will reduce the amount of student debt you have to pay off. For self-funded students, a tuition fee rebate will be paid straight to your source of funding.
For first-term teaching lost, fill out this form. For second term lost teaching fill out this form. If you have lost teaching in both terms, fill out both forms. To do so, you will need your student number and information concerning the precise lectures, tutorials or seminars you have missed on the following days:
November: Thursday 24, Friday 25, Wednesday 30 .
February: Wednesday 1, Thursday 9, Friday 10, Tuesday 14, Wednesday 15, Thursday 16.
March: Wednesday 15, Thursday 16, Friday 17, Monday 20, Tuesday 21, Wednesday 22.
If you do not remember the precise lectures that weren’t delivered, you can use the “lecture capture” tool on KEATS to see which dates have no recordings.
These forms will have the effect of submitting a formal complaint to KCL for lost teaching but don’t worry, this will not mean you are treated less favourably throughout your remaining years at university. The rebate will be funded by savings King’s has made through not paying striking staff members and not by the UCU.
If you have lost money due to travel costs incurred on strike days where teaching was not provided but where you were not notified in time, you can also request a refund. To do so, provide details of this in the lower boxes of the complaint forms above under the question “Was there any other impact resulting from industrial action in Term Two?”
You can also claim for loss due to UNISON strike action but as this union represents workers in administration, catering, cleaning and other services, and not lecturers, you will be less likely to succeed. To do so use the same forms as above.
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