Universities alter student contracts to avoid COVID claims

A number of top universities in the United Kingdom have changed the contracts they make students sign at the start of the year in an apparent bid to protect against claims for refunds if teaching is disrupted by COVID-19, writes Will Hazell foriNews.

The universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Leeds, an investigation by The Tab student newspaper found, changed their terms and conditions since COVID struck in 2020 to add clauses which potentially limit their liability for pandemics. In a section of Edinburgh’s student contract spelling out the events in which it would not be “liable to you for any failure to carry out ... any of our obligations”, the university added a reference to “pandemics, epidemics, or disruption from pandemics or epidemics”.

Glasgow added a reference to “pandemics” to the liability section of its contract, while Leeds included a new section saying that it “might still need to change courses and other elements of the student experience”, including potentially cancelling courses and closing facilities.
Full report on the iNews site