Compensation for Newcastle students sets precedent, union says

A £2.4m compensation payout to students affected by strikes will set a precedent and “put other universities on alert”, a union secretary has said.

Newcastle University has handed out £2.4m, as of the end of July, in compensation to 10,934 students, according to a Freedom of Information Request.

The compensation was given to those who had learning disrupted due to action by staff between March and June in response to job cuts.

Loes Veldpaus, secretary for the university’s branch of the University and College Union (UCU), said it would be “interesting to see” how other institutions across the country respond to the awarding of the “significant” sum.

Industrial action stopped at the end of June, when the UCU said it had received assurances from the university that no further job losses would be made until next year.

The university said more than 200 academics had already taken voluntary redundancy.

The compensation amount, which was part of a scheme introduced following guidance from higher education regulator the Office for Students, differed from student to student, dependent on how many teaching modules were impacted.

UK fee-paying students can claim £100 of compensation for each module disrupted, up to a maximum of £600.

International fee-payers can receive £200 of compensation per module, with an upper limit of £1,200.

Student Amala Parry, from Nottinghamshire, said she lost 20 hours of teaching time and received £200.

The 21-year-old said the lost time “cut my contact hours down by half in the second semester and I only had eight hours as it was.

“It was the final semester of my third year, it did have an impact.”

Meanwhile, 22-year-old Anna Nix, from the Czech Republic, lost five hours and also received £200 compensation.

She said it was a stressful time.

“I was in my third year, I was writing my dissertation, so it was a lot of uncertainty, we didn’t know what was happening,” she added.

A Newcastle University spokesman said: “We are offering students compensation for missed teaching due to industrial action, which is in line with the latest directions to the sector from the Office for Students (OfS).

“Funds that were saved from unpaid salaries due to industrial action were redirected towards the compensation scheme.”