What the student Covid compensation claims really mean for higher education
Last week, University College London settled a legal claim brought by 6,000 of its own students. The students argued they didn’t get the education they paid for during Covid. UCL hasn’t admitted any wrongdoing. But the case is now closed — and perhaps the door is wide open.
This week, 36 more universities received legal letters. Over 170,000 students are now involved. The institutions named include Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and many others.
The argument they make is simple. Students paid for an in-person degree. They got Zoom calls, closed campuses, and cancelled graduations. Under consumer law, that gap — between what was promised and what was delivered — may entitle them to compensation.
“I just felt really let down. You spend a lot of money for a degree.”
— Georgia Johnson, former University of Manchester student, BBC News Website
This isn’t really about Covid
Universities will say the pandemic was an exceptional situation. That’s true. They adapted quickly, often under enormous pressure. That counts for something.
But here’s the harder truth: Covid didn’t create this problem. It just made it visible.
Ever since tuition fees were raised to £9,000 a year, students have been paying for a specific experience. They see themselves as customers. They expect value for money. And when that value isn’t there, they notice.
The tension between what universities promise and what they actually deliver has been building for years. The pandemic just brought it to a head.
Three questions worth asking now
Whether or not your institution is named in the claims, the issues behind them deserve attention.
- Do you know what your University actually promised students?
What your marketing says, what your induction materials suggest, and what your contract small print allows are often three different things. Most universities have never mapped that gap. These claims are, in part, the cost of not doing so.
- When things go wrong, does the University processes actually help?
Georgia Johnson’s story in the BBC article isn’t just about online lectures. She felt unsupported when she was struggling. She left her course under-prepared and under-confident. The question for leaders isn’t only ‘did we teach?’ It’s ‘did our systems help students succeed when it mattered most?’
- Has the University actually changed – or just recovered?
There’s a difference between bouncing back from Covid and building something better. Many institutions returned to how things were before. But the claims being filed suggest students don’t think that’s good enough. And perhaps, just perhaps, they may have a point.
The bigger risk isn’t in court
Yes, there are legal costs to think about. Contracts to review. Economic analysis to commission. But the real risk is simpler: how does your institution look to the next generation of students?
Students and parents are watching how universities respond to these claims. A defensive, lawyer-led response might limit liability; however, it probably won’t rebuild trust.
The claims deadline is September 2026. That’s also a window. Institutions that use this moment to genuinely reflect – and show it – have an opportunity to stand out.
Lead the conversation, don’t just manage the crisis
The students filing these claims aren’t outliers. They’re telling a story that many others recognise. They paid a lot. They expected a lot. And for a significant stretch of time, they got significantly less.
The universities that come out of this well won’t just be the ones with the best legal teams. They’ll be the ones that asked the harder questions — and did something about the answers.
The bill was always going to come. What matters now is what you build next.
How Caja can help
We work with universities and higher education institutions at exactly these kinds of inflection points – when the pressure to respond quickly can get in the way of responding well.
Our work in higher education typically focuses on three areas:
- Promise vs. delivery audits. We help institutions map student journeys across the whole lifecycle from marketing through to course delivery and alumni – and identify where potential gaps in the experience are before they become claims.
- Student experience transformation. We work with leadership teams to redesign the processes, systems, support structures that shape what students actually experience day to day – not just in a crisis, but consistently.
- Organisational resilience. We help institutions build the operating models and governance structures that allow them to absorb disruption without it showing up in the student experience.
With all of the above created and delivered in the most human-centric way which is why we are different to other consultancies.
If any of the questions in this piece feel uncomfortably close to home, we’d welcome a conversation. No agenda — just a frank discussion about where you are and what good might look like.
