UK universities are being sued over COVID teaching. If you were there between 2019 and 2022, your deadline is September 2026.

Following UCL's out-of-court settlement with 6,000 students over COVID-era teaching, the same legal group has sent pre-action letters to 36 more universities. Over 170,000 students are involved. The list includes Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, King's College London, Leeds, Liverpool, Imperial College London, and the LSE. Claims cover the 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22 academic years.

The argument is straightforward: students paid full fees for an in-person campus experience and received online teaching, restricted facilities, cancelled graduations, and no access to specialist labs. Online courses typically cost 25-50% less than in-person equivalents. UCL settled without admitting liability. The door is open.

If you or anyone in your family studied at any of these 36 universities between 2019 and 2022, you may have a valid claim. The deadline expires September 2026. That's seven months. Visit Student Group Claim to register.

The bigger question for families considering sending a child to the UK to study: international Nigerian students paid two to three times more than domestic students for the same disrupted pandemic education. If universities settle these claims, the implicit admission is that what they sold during COVID wasn't worth full price. That's a conversation worth having before you pay the next application fee.