High Court orders pause in ’Student Group Claim’

UCL's Wilkins Building & Portico The High Court has ordered an eight month pause of the Court proceedings brought by a group of current and former students in response to changes in teaching during the pandemic and industrial action to allow for alternative dispute resolution procedure (ADR) to be explored. As part of this 'Student Group Claim', law firms acting for the students, Asserson Law Offices and Harcus Parker Limited, also applied to the King's Bench Division of the High Court for a Group Litigation Order (GLO) to manage the claim going forward which was heard on 24 May 2023. A GLO is a case management procedure where multiple claims sharing common issues can be dealt with as one single claim. Both UCL and the law firms made submissions to the High Court on 24 May 2023 with UCL arguing that the proceedings should be stayed to allow for students to engage with its existing well-established complaints process with the ability to complain to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) if students were unsatisfied with UCL's decision. Both services are free of charge for students. The Court recognised that this 'ready-made' ADR process has the potential to resolve all, or a large proportion, of the students' claims provided they are resourced and managed in a timely fashion. The eight month stay of the Court proceedings and exploration of alternative ways to resolve the dispute could, in the High Court's view, save substantial time and legal costs.