Student Group Claim legal action against universities during Covid lockdowns: Legal comment

Dozens of universities could face legal action from more than 170,000 students for an alleged breach of contract during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Student Group Claim has written to 36 universities warning it intends to seek damages for learning that students claim they paid for but didn’t receive during the pandemic, which forced university campuses to close.

The letters were sent after the group reached a settlement with University College London (UCL) on the same issue. It involved 6,000 students and was due to be heard in court in March.

UCL has not admitted any liability and details of the settlement remain confidential.

Trish D’Souza, legal director in the education team at UK and Ireland law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “With claimants’ solicitors offering advice on a no-win, no-fee basis, students may feel there are limited downsides to signing up for potential compensation via the online campaigns. However, court action requires more in practice, with individual rather than generic detail about the basis for the claim and not all claims will have equal merit.

“Settlement can be an attractive option for a university where there is a high volume of claims and it finds itself in the position of being a test case, with the risk of litigation uncertainty and potential reputational impact.

“When any case like this does go to court, a judge would usually be aware of the ‘floodgate effect’ of allowing claims like this to be successful when passing down a judgment. In a case considering the operational impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, there could clearly be a knock-on impact on other sectors and public services that were also forced to close due to government directives.

“It may not necessarily be the case that other universities that have been targeted by the class action will follow UCL’s lead, since the claims all depend on their own facts. Whether or not this involves them joining forces as defendants will be interesting as while a united front could strengthen their hand in court, it may be more difficult to achieve this if there are key differences in how they operated or engaged their students during the pandemic, for example.

“All universities – not just the 36 institutions that received legal letters – should use the time between now and the September 2026 deadline for student claims (as breach of contract claims should be pursued within years of the alleged breach) to prepare effectively.

“They should consider compiling an audit trail of how they communicated with students, assess the terms of their student contracts and be able to explain how they mitigated government-mandated closures with online teaching and provided an experience as close as possible to what would typically be expected without being able to attend campus.”