At the end of term, Professor Karen Cox wrote the following letter to Ruth Wilkinson, Kent Union President. The letter was in response to student queries on the subject of financial reimbursement following the recent period of strike action by members of the University and College Union. The letter is reproduced here in full.

Dear Ruth

As we reach the end of term, I wanted to let you know that we are continuing to gather information to assess the impact of the current period of industrial action on individual modules across the University. This information will allow us to develop a policy and effective mechanisms to support the consideration of any claim for compensation in a fair and equitable manner. Before we send any notification to individual students (who will have been differentially affected), we would value a discussion with you as to a suitable simple but fair approach that we might adopt to minimise any administration costs and avoid an unnecessarily legalistic approach.

We are also aware that there are a number of students who incurred expenditure, such as travel costs, to attend a lecture or seminar which was then cancelled as a result of the industrial action. In the coming weeks, we will be introducing a system to allow them to submit a claim to have this money reimbursed, aside from any wider compensation scheme. I will continue to update you on this.

Best wishes

Karen

Professor Karen Cox | Vice-Chancellor and President