Monday 15-03-2021 - 11:37

SU Officer Statement

This year the promise of ‘blended learning’ has been far from the reality. We’re calling for compensation on tuition fees for the experience received this academic year by the ‘Class of Covid’.

Students really appreciate the immense effort of staff to put their teaching online. Our campaign is not trying to undermine the work staff continue to put into students' education, but is in recognition of the blatant fact that covid has impacted students' educational experience. Students across the board have missed out on opportunities they would have in a normal year, and students feel that the university experience sold to them over summer has been far from the reality. 

International students have been particularly badly hit, some having travelled across the globe to be in Bristol for no reason, and some not even making it to Bristol the entirety of this academic year. Having to pay up to £38,000 a year with fees set to rise again in 2021/22 seems wholly unjustified given the circumstances. 

Our campaign for fee justice requires collective action to pressure universities and the government to recognise these problems and compensate students accordingly. We’ve held forums that have allowed students to relay their respective concerns and sentiments and we will be asking for your help to gather further evidence in a more comprehensive way. 

There has been extensive student criticism of astronomically high fees and so far the University has failed to engage with students in this conversation meaningfully. There are very valid fears that the cost of blanket tuition fee reimbursements could lead to mass redundancies and a diminished student experience which we want to avoid at all costs. Justice on fees must be backed by a government bail-out of higher education. Ultimately, the pandemic has proven that the fee-based system of funding universities is broken, and higher education should be free. Fee justice for this year is the first step on that road. 

We are launching our fee justice campaign to gain compensation for the ‘Class of Covid’, reduce the amounts paid for international tuition fees and show the government the pandemic has proven the current tuition fee model is unworkable. 

We will be organising a number of actions, coordinated locally and nationally, that all students can get involved with to drive this campaign forward. Students this year are united against excessive fees for a severely impacted educational experience – it's time we organise collective action to make our voice heard. 

 

What have we done so far? 

• We’ve held forums to gather feedback and concerns
• We’ve supported student complaints through our Just Ask Advice Service
• In collaboration with International Student Officers from other Russell Group (RG) universities, Roy has submitted a petition to the Parliament’s Petition Committee and sent an open letter to the CEO of the RG and Vice Chancellors of RG universities, calling for compensation for the experience of International students this year, for the reduction of international fees in years to come and for the government to provide a bailout to help the higher education to adequately support students through the pandemic.
• We met with the university senior management team on 12 March and have another meeting planned later this month. Our conversations have been constructive and we hope to continue working together with the university on the issues raised in our campaign.

 

Take Action Now 

• Share your story with us
• Share your story with Hugh Brady using our template letter
• Attend our virtual town hall event on Friday 19 March
• Support the campaign on social media. Tag @bristol_su in your stories, or use one of these frames to show your support on Facebook. 

 

What’s next? 

We’ll be taking regular action over the coming weeks to get your voices heard locally and nationally. Plans so far include: 

• Writing to MPs
• Submitting mass complaints to the Office for Students
• Lobbying the university 

 

Get regular updates on what we have planned and find out how you can join in.

Find out more about the campaign, and about the actions you can take.

Read our FAQs.