Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he make a further assessment of the potential merits of reimbursing university students for (a) tuition fees and (b) accommodation throughout the covid-19 lockdowns.

This has been a very difficult time for students, and the government is working with the sector to make sure all reasonable efforts are being made to enable students to continue their studies. I want to thank all higher education (HE) staff for their tireless work to ensure that young people do not have to put their lives or their academic journeys on hold.

I welcome the huge amount of resource universities have given to ensuring online teaching is of the high quality expected by the government and the Office for Students (OfS). The government’s clear and stated expectation is that universities should maintain the quality and quantity of tuition and seek to ensure that all students, regardless of their background, have the resources to study remotely. This is more important than ever at the moment, with the vast majority of students studying solely online.

Universities are autonomous and responsible for setting their own fees within maximum fee limits set by regulations. The OfS, as regulator of HE providers in England, has made it clear that HE providers must continue to comply with registration conditions relating to quality and academic standards, which set out requirements to ensure that courses are high quality, that students are supported and achieve good outcomes and that standards are protected, regardless of whether a provider is delivering its courses through face-to-face teaching, remote online learning or a combination of both.

We continue to regularly engage the sector in discussion on this issue. I wrote to the OfS on 13 January outlining the government’s expectations of the HE sector following the new national lockdown. Following this, the OfS wrote to provider Accountable Officers, setting out the actions they are taking in connection with providers’ compliance to existing regulatory requirements. We expect providers to ensure that continuing and prospective students receive the clear, accurate and timely information needed to make informed decisions.

Whether or not an individual student is entitled to a refund will depend on the specific contractual arrangements between the provider and student. If students have concerns, there is a process in place. They should first raise their concerns with their university. If their concerns remain unresolved, students at providers in England or Wales can ask the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for Higher Education to consider their complaint.

The OfS does not get involved in individual student complaints, that is for the relevant HE provider and possibly the OIA. Students can, however, notify the OfS of issues that may be of regulatory interest to it. These are called ‘notifications’. The OfS uses this information as part of its regulatory monitoring activity and keep HE providers under review to ensure that they comply with the ongoing conditions of registration. OfS has produced a guide for students to support them in this process.

With regards to accommodation, universities and private accommodation providers are autonomous and are responsible for setting their own rent agreements. The government plays no direct role in the provision of student residential accommodation.

We recognise that in these exceptional circumstances some students may face financial hardship. The Department for Education has worked with the OfS to clarify that providers are able to use existing funds, worth around £256 million for academic year 2020/21, towards hardship support. We are also making available an additional £50 million of hardship funding this financial year. In total we have made £70 million of additional funding available for student hardship, given the £20 million made available to higher education providers in December 2020. The government urges universities and private accommodation providers to be fair in their decisions about rent charges for this period. We welcome the news that a number of universities and large companies have already offered rent rebates for students that have been asked to stay away from their accommodation.

The OIA website is available via the following link: https://www.oiahe.org.uk/.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has published guidance on consumer contracts, cancellation and refunds affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. This sets out the CMA’s view on how the law operates to help consumers understand their rights and help businesses treat their customers fairly. This is available via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds.

The OfS has also published guidance on student consumer protection during the COVID-19 outbreak, which is available via the following link: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/for-students/student-and-consumer-protection-during-coronavirus/.

The OfS has also produced a guide to help students raise concerns, which is available via the following link: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/office-for-students-notifications/.