Case Summaries

Industrial action - CS051906

Case summary May 2019 | Not Justified

A student was on a one-year foundation course at the time of the industrial action. The student complained to the University that it hadn’t delivered lectures, seminars and academic development sessions which they had paid for, and that some of the missed teaching included core content and study advice.

The University accepted that the industrial action may have caused distress and inconvenience to students. It had therefore set up an ex gratia fund. The University considered the student’s complaint and offered an ex gratia payment of £130.

The student complained to us.

We asked the University what it had done to make up for the missed learning opportunities. It said that to minimise the impact of the industrial action on the student it had:

    organised one-to-one drop in sessions to discuss module content or more general concerns about the cancelled classes
added extra resources to the online Virtual Learning Environment, including previous lecture recordings
ensured that Module Convenors regularly contacted students about their work and with advice on how to use their time during the industrial action
organised replacement workshops designed to address some of the missed content
identified subjects that weren’t taught and removed them from assessments so that no student results would be adversely affected because they would only be assessed on subjects that were taught.

We decided the complaint was Not Justified.

We decided that the University had demonstrated that it had tried to minimise disruption for the student and to put things right. The University had recognised the academic impact and the missed learning opportunities and had taken steps to remedy both. The University had also provided a remedy for any distress and inconvenience suffered by the student in the form of the ex gratia payment.