Students Consider Legal Action After Being Given Loans Worth £190m In Error
3 min read
Students could take legal action after over a dozen universities wrongly classified their courses as being eligible for maintenance loans, leading to thousands being told they owed money.
Last week, PoliticsHome revealed that 22,000 students across 15 mostly franchised providers were this year wrongly given an estimated £190m in taxpayers' money in maintenance loans and grants after their weekend-only courses, which ordinarily are classified as distance learning and not qualifying for maintenance support, were registered as eligible.
A letter sent by the Department for Education (DfE), and seen by PoliticsHome, said that the Student Loans Company must seek to “recover previous irregular payments made” from ineligible students, and will not pay their maintenance support further.
Franchising allows universities to subcontract teaching and training to other organisations, such as colleges.
Responding to the story last week, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson accused the universities involved of "incompetence" and “abuse of public money”, while higher education bodies pointed to confusion over the student loan regulations.
Students whose future maintenance payments will suddenly cease have told PoliticsHome the error will leave them owing thousands, and that they are considering legal action.
However, some of the universities are also taking legal advice after the DfE ordered that the courses in question be reclassified.
A Computer Science student of Solent University, taught through franchise partner QA Higher Education (QAHE), said: “I was expecting to repay it [my loan] after graduation according to a plan… However, now I will have to pay it in instalments as Student Finance has told me today that there will be a direct debit set up, and I'm not talking about hundreds of pounds, I'm talking about thousands.”
She added: “We've raised a petition, we've contacted our local MPs, we've also contacted [the] National Union of Students (NUS), and we are considering getting a solicitor and taking legal action against the university because this is, I don't even have any words left, to be honest.”
Vlad Iordan, a Business Management student at London Metropolitan University’s QAHE-run campus in Birmingham, said: “We signed in good faith with the agencies, with the university. The university provided the information to the [student] finance, and finance approved it. I was like, 'Why should I pay for something that you screwed up?’"
A third affected student, writing on social media, said he felt “misled” by his university, and “the social media recruiting agencies sharing the wrong information,” which had left him with “huge loans to pay back”.
Nona McDuff, Deputy Vice Chancellor at London Metropolitan University, told PoliticsHome that the university was also taking its own legal advice, but added she was unable to offer further details. “Our priority remains clear and open communication with all students who may be impacted,” she said.
Solent has advised students that it is “seeking legal advice on the decision by the DfE to require the reclassification of courses as distance learning”, with a spokesperson adding it was working to support students.
Amira Campbell, President of the NUS, warned that thousands of students could be plunged into poverty if payments stop as planned, pointing out that the funding also included childcare grants for students who have children under 15.
“They should not be facing a funding cliff edge because of a mistake or being mis-sold their course,” she said.
Universities UK, which represents 142 institutions across the country, said it recognised “how distressing this is for affected students, and we want to reassure these students that universities are considering the different forms of support available”.
A spokesperson for QAHE said it was “committed to ensuring our students are supported and provided with clear communications about next steps”.
The DfE declined to comment.
