Covid-19 testing at Greenwich University. PA Wire The University of Greenwich has made one-off payments of £1,000 available to students in private-rented accommodation during lockdown if they can prove financial hardship . This comes as universities across England and Wales have come under pressure from student unions to offer at least partial refunds on accommodation, as well as a growing January rent strike among students. Greenwich University say £244,000 is to be made available to private renters studying at the university during the pandemic. The south east London university have made the new, £1,000 hardship fund available as a one-off payment from January 18. The money will help students in halls and private accommodation who can prove financial hardship.
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“Theyâve put their bottom line ahead of our welfareâ: inside the UK’s student rent strikes
Expecting a fresh start, young people across the country are instead stuck indoors, paying for accommodation they can t use. So they ve taken matters into their own hands.
Itâs not been a university experience that would be advertised in any undergraduate prospectus.
They may have expected boundless learning, to discover new interests and chase new dreams, but when students were brought back to campus in September, many saw their classes move online within a matter of weeks, leaving them effectively trapped in their cramped flats. Forced to self-isolate after their migration to the city helped fuel a second-wave of coronavirus, dejected freshers in Manchester hung posters from their halls comparing the situation to prison.
Frustrated students are on the brink of strike action over the quality of their online tuition.
Emboldened by the recent success of rent strikes, the group at the London School of Economics are demanding a partial refund on their tuition fees.
They ve written to the university asking for a third off their fees. Image: Almost 200 university students have complained to the higher education complaints watchdog. File pic
Post-graduate student Kit Digby spent £15,000 on her international history master s degree.
Although last term went ahead as planned, this term all her learning is online, which she says is an isolating and uninspiring experience.
Manchester Uni deletes Insta post telling students to see lockdown ‘as a retreat’
The post gave students advice for coping with their mental health in lockdown
3 months ago
The post has now been deleted following backlash online, with people calling the advice “patronising and insensitive”.
Among other things, the post listed five ways to “remain positive”, the most ill-received being: “Don’t see this as a lockdown, but as a retreat.”
One student said: “@OfficialUoM really outdone themselves with this advice. Seem to have confused national lockdown in Manchester with two weeks in Bali.”
.@OfficialUoM really outdone themselves with this advice.
“Universities have turned into landlords”: UK students plan biggest rent strike in 40 years
Students from at least 20 universities across Britain are planning to to go on rent strike when they return from the Christmas break –
unless their universities agree to negotiate on rent reductions. They insist that they should not be made to pay premium rates. Es
pecially in the midst of a pandemic, when in-person teaching and campus life is so limited.
In November, there were successful mass strikes, leading the University of Manchester to reduce halls rent by 30 per cent for the autumn term. The success of campaigns so far has created a movement across the UK. At least 20 rent strikes are currently underway or being organised on campuses. Hundreds of students at universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Sussex, Goldsmiths, and Edinburgh are preparing to take action in 2021. The action comes from growing frustration at online teaching, conditions in halls of residence and an allege