by Joe Rukin
In a landmark legal case a court has awarded students damages for disappointment and stress as result of Higher Education College failing to proper programme of study it had promised. In first case of this kind to be heard by the courts, on Friday 28th February 2003, HHJ Charles Harris QC made the historic step of recognising that disappointment, stress or loss of enjoyment now extends to the arena of education making this a landmark case.
For the disappointment element alone damages were awarded for the 6 students of £2000.00 each. In addition to awarding damages for other heads of damage including out of pocket expenditure, fees paid including fees for period of repeat study and loss of opportunity. In total the six students were awarded approximately £70,000.00 plus legal costs.
In this case all students argued that the course failed to live up to the course expectations and they had effectively wasted their time and money. In effect the Judge gave clear recognition to the ordinary students as consumers in their own right and this first case of its kind recognising
their consumer rights. This now gives a clear message to Universities to
keep to their promises in supplying courses.
It is now clear that a contract for education is not merely a contract for a
qualification but much more as this case clearly illustrates. This case has obviously widespread importance to both students and Universities alike. For more information on this case contact Mr Jaswinder Gill of Gills Solicitors on 020 8893 6869.
A mature student at North Tyneside College is going to the court of appeal after the high court ruled in favour of the student loans company, after they refused him a loan due to his age on advice from North Tyneside Council. Eric Douglas returned to education after losing his job due to injury, but was told when he applied for a £500 loan that he was too old at 55. The maximum age for students to qualify for a loan is 54, and students aged over 50 must sign a declaration saying they intend to work after graduation to qualify. Mr Douglas now claims his human rights have been violated. He said:
"I have been unemployed for some time now, but I have discovered there are employment opportunities there and I want to put something back into the community. I feel very angry after putting four years of work into my course. I've been made to feel marginalised and I feel I have been discriminated against."
PayUpTony.com, the original online petition against the student loans and tuition fees scheme, is coming ever closer to their target of 100,000 signatures agreeing with their proposals to replace loans with grants and to abolish tuition fees.
Set up by a couple of poor students in Manchester, PayUpTony.com is an independent, non-profit campaign dedicated to getting Tony Blair to come up with the goods. When they reach their target of 100,000, they'll hand in the petition - but it won't stop there. They intend to keep on going until the fight's won, and it seems that local activists are doing it too.
Matthew Platts from York university is determined to get that petition up to the 100k mark, printing flyers to take out to his local schools and colleges, and even just delivering door to door. He said
"If NUS can't win the battle, then I guess individual students will have to. I'm studying myself, at the University of York, and
I'm bloody poor!"
A storm ahs been brewing at Salford University following attempts from student activists to get student Tony Wentworth, leader of the BNP Youth, expelled from the institution for inciting racial hatred, intimidating to black & asian students and allegedly being involved in racist attacks on campus. He was banned from Salford's Students' Union premises until May 5 after hitting a white student in the pavilion bar on Feburary 7. That student says he is too frightened to press charges or publicly reveal his identity, whilst Wentworth claims it was self-defence against an Anti-Nazi league campaigner.
Hundreds of students have now signed a petition to kick Wentworth out. Students have formed the Salford United Against Racism have called for politics students to boycott lectures with the BNP member and for lecturers to refuse to teach him. Makola Mayambika, chair of the students' union Afro-Caribbean society said;
"Our campaign is to expel him. We don't want people to have to study here in fear. We want the university to send out a clear message that people like the BNP and the threat they pose shouldn't be allowed in a university which is open to all people and is for equal opportunities. We want to expose the BNP for what they are."
If you didn't know what they are, despite Wentworth insisting neither he nor his party were racist or Nazis and the comparison was ridiculous, he said;
"I do disapprove of multi-racial societies full stop. However, I am at Salford University just to get an education. In this country we have a right to freedom of speech and political opinions."
University bosses say they cannot exclude someone for their political beliefs, and whilst the vice chancellor would not pass comment, Gary Wright, Salford University's head of marketing, said he could not comment on any individuals but said the university's charter forbids religious, racial or political discrimination and students are required to treat each other with respect or face the threat of disciplinary action.
Contrast that response with the vice principal of Priestley College Matthew Grant to the news that the BNP website had named his college as having party members
""It is a worry but you cannot know how it has got onto the site and it is not necessarily anything to do with students here. As an equal opportunity college, in race, disability and gender, it would be a concern if any students had views that could be racially motivated."
Three gay couples at Oxford University were "married" in a campaign organised by their students union for equal rights for same-sex couples. The ceremony was held as a protest against the current law on marriage between same-sex couples, as UK law does not afford the same rights to same-sex couples as it does to those who are married. Gay men and women cannot inherit money free of tax, arrange funerals, make medical decisions or obtain full custody rights over the children of their partner.
Andrew Copson, VP Welfare and leader of the city's diversity campaign, said:
"This is a time when some legislative solutions are being taken forward, but attitudes are not."
Here are the dates and deadlines for the NUS LGB (Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual) Conference.
Close of nominations for the LGB Officer elections - 2nd May 5pm
Close of motions and committee reports - 9th May 5pm
Mailing to CMs - 12th May
Close of amendments and finance reports - 30th May 1pm
Close of registration of delegates to conference - 6th June 5pm
Compositing - 8th June
Final mailing to CMs - 13th June
Conference - 20th-22nd June, probably in Nottingham or Manchester
If you'd like to submit a motion, you need to write it under the headings "Conference believes", "Conference further believes" and "Conference resolves" (NB anything under the heading "Conference notes" will be deleted). It must be under 500 words. It can be submitted by a union LGB group or society, in which case the LGB Officer needs to sign it, or from an individual LGB student, in which case only that student needs to sign it. You need to send one copy of it to NUS, 461 Holloway Road, London N7 6LJ by the deadline. Faxes aren't acceptable. To submit an amendment, do exactly as above, except you need to state which motion you are amending and it needs to be less than 300 words.
Each CM can send up to four delegates to LGB Conference, and the LGB Campaign encourages all delegations to be at least half female. All delegates must self-define as lesbian, gay or bisexual. The conference will include debate on policy, elections of the NEC LGB Officers - the LGB Officer (Women's Place) and the LGB Officer (Open Place), elections of the LGB Committee, caucuses for particular groups - women, bisexual students, black students, FE students, SWD, trans students, opportunities to hold the LGB Officers and committee to account, plenaries and social events.
The annual conference of NUS Services Limited took place at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool in April and elected the new NUSSL board. They are;
Director For Member Liason: Rob Hayes, President St Martins SU
Director Non Portfolio: Martin Ings Pres Teeside SU
Chair of Ethical and Environment Committee : Debbie Lowe VP Welfare Liverpool Guild
Chair of Retail Trade Committee: Rich Meayers VP at Loughbrough SU
Chair Licensed Trade Committee: Chris Dixon Cardiff SU
The Liverpool Student, a collaborative student newspaper coving Liverpool involving John Moors, Uni of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope Uni may be publishing it's last issue this term. The offices are based at Liverpool Students Union (at JMU, UoL has Liverpool Guild) and JMU sabbs recently held a meeting at which they decided to pull out in the absence of VP Comms and Media Shaz Abbassi. Editorial recruitment which should have started on March 20th was then postponed, and in a union council meeting councillors voted 13-2 to pull. At the meeting, JMU President Vicky Hann, who has personally destroyed all copies of LS in the union last year after it printed an unfavourable (but accurate) story reporting that union sabbs had failed to publicise a 25% pay rise was reported to have said
" Why should we pay for a paper with
book and music reviews? Why can't people buy a proper magazine if they want
that?"
This year, LS has been at the vanguard as students of all institutions have endured severe accommodation problems. However, UoL's Guild Council voted unanimously to buy the name "Liverpool Student" and the contents of the office and to move to close LS Media Ltd. They will run a paper from the Guild next year called Liverpool Student with full editorial independence and still welcoming contributions from Hope and JMU writers.
Abbasi has vowed to fight on at JMU as motions involving hiring have to be passed twice.
Almost 9 in 10 young people want to see their schools and universities 'go fairtrade', according to one of the largest surveys of young people's attitudes to fairtrade, conducted by Christian relief and development agency Tearfund. The survey reveals that 87 per cent of young people want to see their school and university canteens and shops offer a wide range of fairtrade products, such as fairtrade chocolate, coffee, tea and bananas. In addition, 7 out of 10 young people say that they would be willing to buy fairtrade products even if they were more expensive.
However, the survey suggests that relatively few schools and universities offer fairtrade products, as only 8 per cent of young people say that their university or school canteen has them. Almost half of young people know that their canteen does not offer any fairtrade products.Tracey Wearn, a student at Birmingham University says,
"I know that if I buy a chocolate bar, even if it's just 39p, that money is directly helping somebody in the developing world to get a wage they deserve and give them a sense that there is some justice in the world."
And as if by magic, a website appears. Student Jonny Platt has set up a website, Give as u Get for students which gives it's commission to charity. He said;
"Now I like my gadgets and all the little luxuries I'm surrounded by, and
I'm going to carry on buying them.. but i wanted a better way of doing it, so I made this website: Give as u Get. The idea is that the website acts as a search engine or directory of retaillers, all of which pay me a commission of what you spend. There's over 150 shops including MVC, Amazon, Oddbins, WoolWorths, Marks and Spencers.. the list goes on - and all of them have agreed to pay a percentage of what customers I send to them spend on their site - at no
extra cost to the customer. I then take this commission and split it between charitable organisations
as dictated by the users of the site (they get to decide the weighting between the environment, the developing world, human rights etc). For example, should you go to Bol.com (a discount bookstore) who offer me a 20% commission, and spend £25 on books you've just raised £5 for charity. A £10 CD from MVC at 5% commission - that's 50p for charity. Get a new mobile from StudentMobiles.com and they give us £10 to give to charity. You can even order pizza and beer and money will go to charity!
(Majestic give 7.5%, Dominos 3%) With the news that £1 billion was spent online in November alone, it's easy to see what potential GiveAsUGet has - simply by going to GiveAsUGet before visiting Amazon or whichever you ensure that a proportion of your spending will go to charities campaigning for fair trade, a cleaner environment and a better life for the lot of us.
There will be some on line competition to educationet.org next year after the launch of the National Student this month. In print, the National Student will be produced monthly with a circulation of 250,000 copies, sent to every university in the country and available to students absolutely free of charge. Unlike many other publications and supplements aimed at students on a nationwide level, The National Student is unique in that it is published by a student-owned company, Defender Newspapers, based in Lincoln.
Editor, Alex Walker said:
"It's all very exciting. Nobody has ever tried anything like this before, but we are confident that it will be a great success. Students need their own newspaper, now more than ever, with all that is going on in higher education. We will consider articles from any students on whatever subjects are important to them in order to ensure our paper reflects the broadest spectrum of university life in the UK."
There are plans afoot to make 2003 the 'Second Summer of Love'. Many universities in USA, UK, and Australia are participating in festivals in the next couple of months, mostly student union groups. For more informatiob, or to set up an event, visit 2003: The Second Summer of Love
Labour Students have had their conference in Cardiff, electing Karim Palant as National Chair, Iain Bundred as National Secretary and Rachael Saunders as the Campaigns and Membership Officer. The new national committee will take up their posts in July.
2003: The Second Summer of Love
Alternet, Young People demand fairtrade at schools and universities
Guardian, Gay Oxford students 'marry'
PayUpTony.com
This is Cheshire, Website claims BNP members attend Priestley College
BBC, Student to appeal loan refusal
Manchester Online, Campus uproar over BNP student
Salford Advertiser, BNP youth chief at centre of university row
Labour Party- Student Conference
National Student
