Student protesters demand compensation from University

Students from the University of Manchester are demanding thousands of pounds in compensation, for lost hours of teaching time.

It follows on from 14 days of strike action by lecturers and senior staff, over a dispute surrounding pensions.

It meant lectures, seminars, laboratory sessions and contact time was cancelled for thousands of students across the University.

Now, 1,000 students from Universities around the country have launched a class action lawsuit against the education bodies, demanding compensation.

If it is granted, it could mean payouts of up to £10 million in total.

This afternoon, students from the Take Action campaign group are set to protest outside the Whitworth Building on Oxford Road.

The group will be demanding action from the University, now that the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) and Universities UK (UUK) have returned to the negotiating table and further strikes have been suspended.

Hana Jafar is an English Literature student at Manchester, she said:

"If they operate like a business then we will behave like wronged consumers, because that is what we are in this situation, or at least that is how they're treating us. We want to highlight how problematic it is, to gamble pensions on the stock market.

"I do a degree in English Literature and contact hours are very important to us. It's caused a lot of problems to a lot of students across the board, especially those with dissertations due in the next few months. Those students are missing out on valuable time.

"They will be forced somehow to retrospectively mitigate the damage and fix the problem. At the end of the day they will fix the problem because this is a ridiculous situation to be in.

"The only thing we can do is continue to make noise and to pressure the community. We're hoping that the pressure will continue to have an impact on University management and will force them to see that what they are doing is not just unjust but unethical, on every level."The University of Manchester have so far not responded to request for comment.

A University spokesperson said: “We are in discussion with our Students’ Union about how we best deploy funds from the strike to support students and will reach a decision which takes all relevant factors and views into account. The views of students, submitted to the Students’ Union, would be welcome as part of this dialogue.”