You paid for a premium educational experience. Consumer law ensures you can hold your university accountable for failing to deliver.
When you enrolled at Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University, St Mary’s University College, or Stranmillis University College, you may not have thought of yourself as a “consumer.” But in the eyes of the law, that is precisely what you are. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 provides powerful protections for students who pay for educational services—and your university’s failure to deliver in-person teaching as promised may have breached those protections.
Students Are Consumers
It is now well established that students paying tuition fees are consumers for the purposes of consumer protection legislation. The relationship between a university and its students is contractual: the student pays fees, and the university agrees to provide educational services. This means students benefit from the same consumer protections as anyone purchasing goods or services.
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 – Your Key Protections
The Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“CRA 2015”) sets out statutory standards that apply to all contracts for services, including educational services. Three provisions are particularly relevant to Northern Ireland university student claims:
Section 49 – Services performed with reasonable care and skill: Every contract for services includes an implied term that the service will be carried out with reasonable care and skill. If your university’s decision to maintain hybrid learning—even when PHA guidance indicated it was safe to return to in-person teaching—fell below the standard of a reasonably competent institution, this statutory term has been breached.
Section 50 – Information about the service is binding: Where a trader provides information about itself or the service (such as in a prospectus, website, or marketing materials), and the consumer relies on that information, it becomes a term of the contract. If your university’s prospectus and course webpages described in-person lectures, seminars, tutorials, and access to campus facilities, those descriptions became contractual promises. The failure to deliver them is a breach of contract.
Section 52 – Performance within a reasonable time: Services must be performed within a reasonable time. The indefinite continuation of hybrid delivery—long after other institutions had returned to normal teaching—may itself constitute a breach of this implied term.
Unfair Contract Terms
The CRA 2015 also provides powerful protections against unfair terms in consumer contracts. University Terms and Conditions typically contain broad force majeure clauses which purport to exclude liability for failures caused by “pandemic, quarantine or widespread illness” and other events “beyond reasonable control.”
However, such exclusion clauses are subject to the fairness test under Part 2 of the CRA 2015. A term is unfair if, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties’ rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer. We will argue that such force majeure clauses are unenforceable insofar as they seek to exclude liability for the university’s own decision to continue hybrid delivery when it was safe to return to in-person teaching.
The clause gives the University sweeping protection while offering students nothing in return—no fee reductions, no meaningful alternatives, and no compensation for the inferior education received. This one-sided allocation of risk is precisely the type of term the CRA 2015 is designed to address.
Remedies Under Consumer Law
If QUB has breached its statutory obligations under the CRA 2015, you are entitled to remedies. These include:
- Price reduction: A reduction in the price paid (i.e., a partial refund of tuition fees) to reflect the difference between the value of the service promised and the service actually received.
- Damages: Compensation for losses suffered as a result of the breach, including consequential losses such as accommodation costs and the loss of the full university experience.
- Right to repeat performance: In some circumstances, the consumer may require the trader to perform the service again, to the required standard. While this is not practical for a completed degree programme, it underlines the seriousness with which the law treats service failures.
The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008
In addition to the CRA 2015, students may have claims under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (“CPRs”). These regulations prohibit “misleading actions”—that is, conduct which gives a false impression about a product or service and causes the average consumer to make a transactional decision they would not otherwise have made.
If your university’s prospectus and marketing materials represented that teaching would be delivered in person, and you relied on these representations in deciding to enrol and pay fees, the continuation of hybrid delivery may constitute a misleading action. The CPRs provide for civil remedies including the right to unwind the contract or to receive a discount on the price paid.
Why Consumer Law Matters for Your Claim
Consumer protection law provides a parallel route to recovery alongside breach of contract. Importantly, the statutory protections under the CRA 2015 cannot be excluded or limited by the University’s Terms and Conditions. This means that even if a university’s force majeure clause were held to be valid and enforceable (which we dispute), the institution cannot escape liability for breaching its statutory duties to provide services with reasonable care and skill and as described in its pre-contractual materials.
RP Crawford Solicitors – Experts in Consumer Litigation
Our litigation team has extensive experience in consumer protection claims. We understand how to deploy the full range of statutory remedies available under the CRA 2015 and CPRs to maximise recovery for our clients. We will ensure that Northern Ireland’s universities are held accountable not only for breach of contract, but for failing to meet the consumer standards that the law demands.
YOUR RIGHTS HAVE A TIME LIMIT
Claims for breach of contract must be brought within 6 years of the breach. For students who enrolled in 2020, some limitation deadlines may expire as early as September 2026.
Protect your rights. Register your interest now—before it’s too late.
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