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Nearly 20,000 students have joined a landmark legal action that could then trigger a torrent of claims. Eighteen institutions – including University College London (UCL) and the universities of Manchester and Leeds – were notified of the group action lawsuit through StudentGroupClaim.co.uk.

More are likely to be drawn into the case as students demand payouts after being charged as much as £40,000 to endure truncated timetables and lectures moved online.

The case against UCL, which delivered courses almost entirely online in the 2021-22 academic year due to Covid, will be heard in the High Court in February.

Action against 17 other universities is set to follow.

The Russell Group of top universities held an emergency meeting last week to discuss the students’ case.

A flood of successful claims would have a massive financial impact on colleges.

During the pandemic, online lectures were increased, which allowed costs to be cut. The 18 institutions facing claims saw coffers boosted by over £1billion last year.

Students have also suffered from strike action by lecturers – 575,000 teaching hours were lost in 2018 alone. And 70,000 members of the University and College Union voted last week to bring education to “a complete standstill” again this year at 150 institutions.

Among those lodging a claim is Caitlin McDonald, a South African student who paid £29,000 for a one-year Masters in Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL. She said: “Online teaching was horrible as all our lectures were pre-recorded, so it was like watching YouTube videos with no interaction.”

But a spokesman for Universities UK, which represents 140 institutions, said: “The pandemic threw two years of unprecedented challenges at the higher education sector. We are proud of how universities adapted.”

‘Dream course left me empty’

Fine Art student Tia O’Donnell started at Central Saint Martins in September 2018 to fulfil a childhood dream.

But Tia, who lived at home in London and paid £9,000 a year in fees, says her incredible experience evaporated with the pandemic. On her graduation day she carried a sign saying: “I want a refund.”

She said her four years at a college that is part of University of the Arts London “felt very empty”.

Her frustration was exacerbated by lecturers going on strike.

She added: “For my time to be just doing everything I did before – being a ‘bedroom producer’ and making everything from home, and for that to be what I was paying for, but not what I had signed up for, didn’t make sense.”

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