What’s in the pre-action letter sent to Imperial?
UCL reached a costly settlement last month with the Student Group Claim, an entity representing students and graduates that seek compensation for disruptions to teaching during the 2017 to 2021 period, which was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and nationwide strikes.
Asserson Law Offices and Harcus Parker Limited, the law firms representing the claimants, also sent a pre-action letter to Imperial College in October 2022, which was seen by Felix.
The pre-action letter – a formal notice to encourage a settlement before initiating court proceedings – claims that it was an “implied term” of Imperial’s enrolment contracts that the College would provide students with in-person tuition and physical access to learning facilities.
According to the letter, Imperial breached these contracts when it failed to provide teaching on a total of 43 days during the 2017-18, 2019-20, and 2021-22 academic years due to staff strikes, as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it moved to online learning and severely restricted access to facilities on campus.
“Our clients’ claims are premised upon the fact that the university promised to provide them with in-person tuition and access to facilities and then failed to provide those promised services,” the letter reads. “They are in principle entitled to compensation, which can be calculated as the difference between the market value of the promised services and the market value of the services actually provided.”
Additionally, alleged “non-pecuniary loss” suffered by students in the forms of “distress” and “disappointment” is mentioned.
The document also says Imperial “appears to have thrived financially” during the period covered by the claims, citing an increase in income from tuition fees and education contracts in 2021.
Imperial did not say if or how it responded to this letter. At the onset of the pandemic, the College put measures in place to mitigate disruptions, including sending “lab in a box” kits to students’ homes when labs closed. It was named University of the Year 2022 by The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, in recognition of the quality of its teaching during the pandemic.
