The fight for student rent refunds

The past year has been a difficult time for everyone, and university students are no exception. Paying over nine grand to watch online lectures inside box-like student halls isn’t an enviable scenario.

Lockdown 3.0 has prompted a fresh wave of student despair, emboldening many to demand financial compensation. University students were given a ‘travel window’ at the start of December to return home for Christmas. But with the announcement of nationwide tier 4 restrictions last week, the government has told the majority of students not to return to university until at least mid-February (a small number of students on practical courses are the exception).

“Students are paying rent for accommodation they’re essentially locked out of,” says Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU). “This cannot continue. Students must be reimbursed.”

Joshua Connor, an International Relations and Politics student at the University of Lincoln, has been stuck at his family home in Pendle since the announcement.

Connor left his term-time accommodation several weeks early, on 5 December, in order to follow the student travel guidance. By 25 January, he will have paid £1057 for accommodation that he hasn’t been allowed to use.

With a father who has been critically ill from Covid, Connor is taking the rules seriously. Although like many of his cohort, he thinks “it is unfair to be penalised for respecting the public health advice”.

As restaurant owners can attest, students aren’t the only ones faced with the gruelling task of paying rent on buildings they can’t use. But “the government has rightly supported workers with the furlough scheme”, says Connor. Students, he argues, have received no financial support and have felt “like an afterthought throughout the pandemic”.

Somewhat paradoxically, students have gone from being ‘locked inside’ their accommodation to ‘locked out’ of it. In past months, it was the chaotic isolation measures in cramped university halls which generated headlines. In September, photos circulated of students at Manchester Metropolitan University, trapped inside their accommodation, who had lined their bedroom windows with posters reading “HMP MMU’.

In November, fences were erected without warning in Manchester’s Fallowfield halls, which cut off most entrance points so that students living on the campus could only leave through a single exit point guarded by security. The university later apologised for this measure.

Few would deny, of course, that universities are operating under exceptionally difficult circumstances. “Universities are determined to provide a positive experience for all students and are working extremely hard to deliver high quality online teaching and learning in accordance with latest government guidelines,” says a spokesperson from Universities UK, the vice-chancellors’ umbrella group.

Tillie Pritchard, a third year psychology and criminology student from Brighton University, recognises that online teaching is as much a strain for her lecturers as it is for students. Like many of her contemporaries, however, she is frustrated that students were actively encouraged to commit to term-time accommodation under the unrealistic promise of in-person teaching. “We were told when we went back into third year, we’d have blended learning and in person support for our dissertation. That changed as soon as we got back,” she said.

Pritchard is now paying £600 a month for university accommodation, but the combination of the pandemic and last year’s university strikes has meant she’s had “no in-person teaching since February”.

This backdrop, on top of the further difficulties imposed on students by tier 4 restrictions, is prompting many to take action. And the pressure is mounting on universities to meet students’ demands for financial compensation.

Rent strikes are being organised by students in over 45 universities. A number of universities including Glasgow, UCL and Manchester have already agreed to offer rent rebates for the time students aren’t allowed to return to halls.

When it comes to ensuring fair refunds for all students, the picture is complex.

Crucially, the vast majority of students are not renting university-owned accommodation. Around 20% are in university-owned halls; 25% are in privately-owned university accommodation, 25% are commuter students and the rest rent from private landlords. Thus, universities have a limited power to make decisions about refunds.

A spokesperson from The Office for Students, the independent regulator of higher education in England, says “universities will want to consider what discussions they can have with private accommodation providers in support of their students.” But those providers are under no obligation to take notice.

On Monday, there was a promising development. Unite, the largest private accommodation providers for students, announced a 50 per cent discount on rent until 14 February. This may encourage others to follow suit, though there is less of an incentive for private landlords to offer refunds.

“One thing the government could do,” says Nick Hillman, the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank, “is look at student debt”. Cutting a portion of maintenance loan debt for this year’s cohort could be a way to help the largest number of students and account for those living in all forms of accommodation. International students, in particular, would still be left dissatisfied, however. The fee-cut proposal isn’t currently being considered by the government.

In November, Scotland passed an act enabling students to cancel their tenancies at short notice for reasons relating to Covid-19. Hillary Gyebi-Ababio, National Union of Students (NUS) UK Vice President, believes England should do the same: “Scotland have legislated to do this, Westminster must now follow”.

As a general policy, the NUS believes “all student renters must now be offered rent refunds and the option of leaving their tenancy early. If universities and landlords need financial support to make this happen then government must step-in.”

But determining the line at which the government must step in is complicated, not least because different institutions are in very different financial positions.

The announcement of rent rebates from a number of universities will put pressure on others to follow their lead. But some universities have a much larger pool of resources than others.

Lincoln university, Connor recognises, is in a precarious position. “The university already has a lot of debt to pay off. Reimbursements could put the whole university at risk so for me this is a question of what the government are doing”.

The Department for Education says it is providing additional help: “We recently announced up to £20 million to help students most in need of support in these exceptional circumstances, for example those struggling to cover accommodation costs as a result of the pandemic.”

But, the overwhelming feeling among student and university bodies is that, when the UK has a student population of 2 million, this figure isn’t enough.

Universities UK says the pandemic has already been costly: “Universities have spent significant amounts on hardship funds, supporting students to have the right equipment and resources to study, and online services from careers advice to support for mental health and wellbeing.”

The case for student compensation is compelling. The difficult part will be reaching an agreement on where the money should come from. Finding a solution that will cover students across the full range of rental arrangements is no small task. And tough questions lie ahead about where the responsibility of individual universities ends and that of the governments begins.