Well, at the moment, the fight is happening on the case by case basis and it is very rare, for two reasons; lack of specialists educational lawyers and vast majority of those affected prefer to beg, borrow or whack it on the credit card in order to get the degree and start applying for jobs. Most of the cases though, as soon as they get to the summons level, are settled by the university, i.e. students get degree in return for firm instalment plan. Why do students have to go through this stress? I want to underline; if the students owe money, they have to repay the debt. This is not about getting away with it. But denying them their degree, which was awarded for their academic knowledge because of commercial debt is wrong. You probably would agree with me but you are saying there is nothing at the moment that can be done about it. That may be so (although there is, i.e. educ. solicitor, but it's a hassle, lenghty process)- but I am working to have it changed and I not the only one. Hah, looks like we actualy agree on this, lol

there is a difference between fulfilling an academic requirements of the course and owing money to the commercial arm of the university. I totally agree with you that academic judgment is reserved by the university. But once you have paid for your course and your grades are calculated to represent a specific degree level, the university should not add non-academic debt to the mix. The law provides for other ways of pursuing debt. Non-academic debt should not be used by universities to bully students into paying for their hard earned, rightfully awarded degrees. Withholding of a degree creates paranoidal situation where student can't get a good job which would allow him to repay the debt. Universities are very well aquinted with debt collecting agencies- i know that there are some really bad DCAs but at least you've got your degree, you are on the way to get a job and you can negotiate instalments. There is some work on the way to retain an excellent educational law specialist in order to request a judicial review on this issue. Lots of student union are putting some funds together to fight this ridiculous injustice.

Yep, correct, but having a letter stating your results is not as good as having an official transcript. must we? since when it's OK to withhold degree for debt totally unconnected with your academic performance or payment of your fees? Despite your opinion, I do believe that the University enters into a contract with a student, contract which is for academic services, paid for by tuition fees. This contract simply has nothing to do with halls of accommodation etc.

Most universities will withhold any results, access to services, certificates etc as soon as notified by their finance depat that student is either in debt or not adhering to agreed instalment plan. They will also de-register students after a deadline for payments has passed and some universities will charge up to £200 to re-register. I am dumbstruck at why NUS is not making a serious noise about it. Bankfodder offered them to help with this...so far silence. BTW- meagain, do you sleep at all? LOL

It's still happening despite OFT recommendation in Kingston University. Look here: http://www.denisontill.com/OneStopCMS/Core/CrawlerResourceServer.aspx?resource=cfc8d9e5b8f24175a503ab1bddcfa52a&mode=link&guid=ed74724d8fd844a49597aafe5cc2b5b3 and here: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/unfair_contract_terms/oft656.pdf page 48, point 4.3 Vast majority of Universities are applying such penalties. What is even more evil, the penalty is often for non-academic debt, like library fine or Halls rent arrears!

I agree with gyzmo; get your degree and then start action. Get your student union involved- you are not the only one affected. Send a Freedom of Information request, asking for detailed description of procedures involved in issuing the fine; is it automated (I bet it is), what are the losses to the university following your delay in payment, etc. Go for it, your uni is not the only one doing it. disgusting money-grabbers.

You can certainly try! You can complain about a lot of things which are student related and some of these complaint would be best served by other forums. But you can have a rant here about your tutor, about your accommodation charges etc. One thing that you cannot complain or appeal is academic judgment of your markers. For example; you've got D but you are sure you deserve C. Unless you can show that you got c because the uni did not take into consideration some extenuating circumstances, or that the tutor treated you with prejudice or that some procedures were not followed (for example, you were supposed to have two supervisors as a Phd student but you were only allocated one)- then the academic judgment on its own is beyond complaint. Anyway, what did you want to talk about?

- not in cases where landlords are either in finanial difficulties, are using every trick in a book to stall or simply make arrangments to pay in installements....of £2 per month... - I think Devon Dan is withholding of the rent because the landlord has breached the contract, plus I imagine with such extensive disrepairs, the tenants have suffered financial losses and inconvienience already. Also, I think that it would be unreasonable to expect tenants to fork out a heap of money up front- we are not talking here about one small disrepair issue. I think ultimately, with landlord like this, devon Dan would be naive to hope that he will be duly compensated. By withholding last month rent at least his deposit is protected. If he wants to then he can leave, draw the line and move on.

Devon Dan; rent should not be withheld for no good reason. Usually it is a last resort action. If you did all what's reasonable to inform and encourage landlord to carry out the repairs and he did not, then you could undertake the repairs yourself and deduct your costs from the rent. However as this is your final month then this would be pointless. i would therefore agree with your adviser- refuse to pay any more rent and let him take you to court. His incompetence would be then revealed. Beware though, your deposit will be gone! The agents will consult the landlord about the deposit and you may have to sue him to get it back.

You will not achieve anything by signalling to the finance that you are not happy or that you are going to complaint. these people are income generators and nothing much will disturb them from this role. You can ask your sabbatical officers though if they intent to run some sort of campaign about as it scandalous etc. furthermore, most universities will not issue a formal certificate/diploma if you are in debt with them, even if this debt is non-academic. This is a REAL scandal, well known amongst the student advice community. You need to find this out- will you be forced to pay out in order to get your degree? You may then have to send a letter with your payment which makes it very clear that you had no other option as your career is your main goal. Use lots of terms like: reluctantly, you leave me with no choice, complaint valid but I am being held to ransom, unethical approach, forced to agree, financial pressure etc. This will leave you an open gate if you want to pursue you claim further by taking the University to court for penalty charge. my opinion is; focus now on your final exams, savour the revenge later

Hello; most higher education institutions will offer pro-rata refunds if someone has paid the fees and wants to leave. Therefore if you have registered and then left, you should not be pursued for a full amount. Speak to your Student Union advice centre to find out what is the position on the pro-rata refunds. Secondly, have you been assesed for any financial support towards your fees? Has this support been paid to your uni? Uni will only get the fee grants paid out for those still on register on 1st of December. You need to make sure that this was a case when you registered as I don't know how far this "1st of December" set up goes. Next; unless you have formally withdrawn, the uni would have had you on the register. The fact that your cheque bounced is not very relevant because students usually are given few chances to pay their fees. You need to gather the above info before your court appearance or if you wish to give an informed reply to the solicitors. Every SU has an advice centre. The quality of SU advice centres is usually superb. The only snag you can hit is that you are no longer registered with this uni and the advice centres usually offer assistance to registered students. Therefore you need to either convince them that you are still entitled to their help by virtue of the issue (which arose when you were a student) or simply flatter and plead and bring flowers for the manager! Good Luck!

Brilliant Bookie, thanks!

woohooo, superb! we have our own forum! SLC; watch this space!

Ta, Mr Shed, diligent as ever

Hi there; thin man- i would love for you to keep us posted. as you can imagine, you are not the only one to be in this situation. I wanted to develop a thread about students. You can start us all off! Can you tell us what Uni you are at? (I don't think you need to worry about confidentiality, there are at least few thousand students at any Uni at any time)