University regulators and MPs have supported student calls for tuition fee refunds ahead of the UCU strikes, which will take place over the next three weeks.

The chair of the Commons education select committee, Robert Halfon, told The Mail on Sunday that “students are being forgotten in all this” and the government should make it “clear that if students are not getting their teaching for whatever reason, they get their money back.”

The chief executive of the independent regulator of higher education, Nicola Dandridge, also said institutions should “consider offering partial tuition fee refunds.”

The calls were echoed by student campaigns for compensation from King’s College London (KCL) and London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The KCL movement do not support the strikes and instead want the University to use docked pay of strikers to set up a student fund. LSE students voted to support the strikes but are also lobbying for fee rebates.

Criticism has also pointed towards two years of virtual learning. The Minister for Higher and Further Education, Michelle Donelan, said it was “deeply irresponsible” for unions to call strikes “after students have already missed so much face-to-face teaching from their universities.”

The first week of strikes will take place from Monday 14 to Friday 18 of February in Cambridge. It comes in response to Universities UK plans to cut pensions which the UCU say would mean a “35% cut to the guaranteed retirement benefits for the average member” of the largest pension scheme provided by higher education institutions.

The Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association has recommended that universities withhold 100% of striking staff’s pay. Six universities have threatened to do so, including Newcastle University and the University of Bristol. 

Further UCU strikes are calling for “fair pay, job security, manageable workloads, and equality.” The general secretary of UCU, Jo Grady, said that this industrial action is a “fight for the future of higher education and staff are proud to stand alongside students in the fight for an education system that treats students and staff with respect.”

After strikes in 2018 and 2019, universities paid nearly £3 million pounds to students in compensation.