Noellyn Slaughter, a master's student at King's, is leading this campaign to equip, inform, and encourage students to apply en masse for a tuition reimbursement for the instruction lost in the 2021-2022 school year. In this article, we talk to Noellyn to find out why she started this campaign and why you should support it.

What motivated you to start this campaign? 

I started this campaign when I spoke to someone who works in my building who is a former KCL student. We were talking about the strikes and he mentioned how he had successfully petitioned for a partial tuition reimbursement several years ago due to lost instruction as a result of industrial action.  I thought if he could do it, then so can I! Then I thought, not just me, but students en masse need to know that they have this right to apply for just and fair compensation for instruction that was paid for but not received as part of their degree program. I then reached out to the student union and they sent me the information showing that there was already a formal process in place for this type of action, but it clearly is not something that students are aware of at the wider level.  

How will this campaign benefit students? 

Roughly 20% of our tuition has been lost to industrial action so far this academic year. A 20% tuition reimbursement is a significant sum equalling thousands of pounds depending upon the program fees.  That is a sum that is worth fighting for in my opinion, we paid for it, we didn’t receive it, and therefore compensation by the administration is only right and fair. We aren’t just paying for a degree, we are also paying for the instruction that goes with it and gives it validity.  

Additionally, we cannot continue to tolerate repeated disruptions to our education. The administration is highly paid and therefore it is their job to ensure that the system works for everyone involved, and the primary stakeholders of any educational institution are the students and professors.  If this situation is not remedied, professors will eventually be forced to quit due to unsustainable circumstances, they have to be able to earn a living and have job security.  Once this begins to happen and word gets out that the ship is going down, it will undermine the value of our degrees.  By applying pressure to the administration from the student side to fix that which is broken, we are protecting our educational investment.

How can students support your campaign?

For this to become a Union Campaign it will need to get support from 50 students via petition. You can sign the petition and join the campaign mailing list to get updates here.