• Before COVID-19, Students were ignored when calling for reimbursement during strikes & industrial action that wasn't their fault!
• During COVID-19, Students were ignored when calling for reimbursement after the year was prematurely ended but they still had to pay Tuition Fees + Rent for a University in a city they were no longer in!
• And now, living with COVID-19, Students are being ignored whilst they are being taught how to FaceTime! We might as well be at an Open University!

If this is not #StudentExploitation then I.do.not.know what is. The University of Nottingham's defence is that we are "continuing to provide appropriate and quality teaching" - well I ask how? How can you deliver quality teaching with no face-to-face learning? The Government (the Office for Students and Department of Education) were adamant over Summer that Universities had to do blended learning or they would lose access to the Government bailout packages and be forced to pay Students refunds. As such, UoN (like many others) decided to tell everyone to come back to University for blended learning knowing full well lots will be forced online later (but now they are here they must pay Tuition Fees + Rent costs!) THAT is manipulation and exploitation.

And when it comes to this "blended learning", no money whatsoever has been spent on the staff themselves! Staff members have clearly been left to learn technology on their own, not being appropriately supported or trained despite the University knowing full-online teaching could come. And the Government has forgotten University Students throughout this, with numerous petitions to Government receiving the same response: "HE providers must deliver high quality courses // to facilitate good online tuition // providers to act flexibly, accessibly, and sympathetically // Any refund is a matter for Universities."

Well we Students are telling you UoN in plain English: our COVID-19 education is NOT high quality...it is not even satisfactory!

We cry to be heard. We cry to be respected. As adults. As individuals. Not as consumers or customers or a generation to exploited. We might pay your wages and get your Chancellors their OBEs, but we are humans too! If the University is in need of money, they should look at their OWN costs before unfairly continuing to charge Students. Imposing huge cuts on departments pretty much crippling non-STEM research is one thing, but taking a "temporary" pay cut during the Summer months (when the University was closed anyways) whilst watching UoN crash down the university rankings is quite another (*cough cough* VC & Management). This feels like a huge double-standard. A hierarchy where we Students, who without us you would not exist as an institution, feel at the bottom. If we left today, you would be unemployed by Christmas...That's the reality!

We ask for talks, change and discourse so that we all can get through this pandemic together! Set an example to the Students and Institutions up & down this country: we listen and respect our Student body!

We ask you to reduce our fees to £3,096 (the yearly fee for an Open University Diploma course) for students that are fully-online, and we discuss appropriate refunds for all affected students, so that we can spend the savings on essential items, food, PPE and safety!

Let's sit down and talk, no more ignoring us and our pleas #EndStudentExploitation