Over 5,000 students join claim for compensation for university strikes

Over 5,000 students have now joined a legal bid to claim £20 million in compensation for classes cancelled by universities during lecturer strikes earlier this year, law firm Asserson has said.

The firm has also been advised by a “leading barrister” that the claims are likely to succeed.

Shimon Goldwater, a senior solicitor at Asserson, said: “The compensation claim against universities is building rapidly. Not only are we receiving 500 new sign ups a week, a leading barrister’s advice reaffirms our long-held view that that this claim is likely to succeed.

“Students are telling us that they have been following advice from their unions and the universities to use standard complaints procedures when asking for compensation, with absolutely no sign of progress. In fact, we have not heard of a single instance of a student receiving proper financial compensation for cancelled teaching time.

“Universities are presumably hoping that this problem will go away, but this claim shows that thousands of students are not willing to sit by and pay for a service which was cancelled. The size of this claim, based on £1,000 compensation per student, has already risen to £5 million, with the potential to hit £20 million. If a more generous method is used to calculate damages, the sums at stake could double.”

Mr Goldwater added: “This is already one of the largest student group legal actions ever to have been launched in the UK.”