University students pay £9,250 per year for an average of 26-28 weeks of taught learning, as well as annual accommodation fees ranging from £4.5k-£6k+. This year, two strikes have interrupted taught learning during term time, at Christmas and in March for 3 weeks each, leaving students to do the work online with no taught lecture (which isn't rescheduled) whilst many times students will turn up for lectures to sit and wait for no one to turn up, unannounced. On top of this, following government advice, students have been strongly advised to return home, leaving behind student accommodation (which has been paid for) as campus and facilities close down. Whilst lecture slides are being posted online and exams have either been cancelled or moved to open book online exams, students are still being expected to pay the whole £9,250 or to continue taking out the payment as a loan which interest is then added to. 

We are not just paying however for online slides and open book exams; we have lost our campus, our facilities like the library, students study spaces, our green campus, friends, university events, but we are still paying the same amount and losing our accommodation fees when we have been advised by the government and accommodation companies to go home. Online slides do not equate to taught lectures; if they did no one would turn up and their wouldn't be such a huge emphasis on attendance!

By reimbursing students financially for their final term accommodation fees and term time loans, students will feel they are being heard and not forgotten because we don't have the finanical means to pay out for something we never received just like if a product never arrived you would expect a full refund. Semester 1 was interrupted by strikes for 3 weeks, semester 2 was interrupted by strikes for 3 weeks, semester 2 was cut short by 2 weeks due to covid - 19, and now semester 3 will never begin on campus. Next term I will sit two online open book exams, one of which is multiple choice. Divide £9,250 by 3 semesters and those two exams are costing me £3,083.34. My third exam has been cancelled. I have lost vital experience and will have not sat a real exam at university until it actually counts. Students need help. We cannot work because hospitality and catering industries have shut. McDonalds, Selfridges, Costa, Starbucks, Primark, Restaurants, etc, have all shut and this is our only way of earning money to pay for university. 

For final year university students, they have lost their final semester at university. They cannot celebrate together after their final exam and probably wont graduate in the expected fashion should covid - 19 roll into summer.

Please share and help student voices be heard. We need you to help us, just as many of us are volunteering to help you, through care package deliveries for the elderly, looking after younger siblings now schools are shut, and by doing our part by leaving university and staying home.