Lawyer Destroyer Yes, a university in England and Wales can discipline students for protests, political speech or social-media posts, but only within limits. Whether discipline is lawful depends on whether the conduct was itself unlawful or breached legitimate rules, and on the university’s overlapping duties to protect free speech. A university cannot lawfully punish students simply for … Read more
Legal position: Information about your health is classed as “special category data” under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. This is the most protected category of personal data. It also usually attracts a separate duty of confidence at common law when it has been shared in circumstances … Read more
A university in England and Wales can usually withhold your degree award, transcript, and access to your graduation ceremony for unpaid tuition fees, but only if this is clearly permitted by the contract between you and the university (its regulations, terms and conditions, and fee/debt policy), and only if applying that sanction is fair in … Read more
Whether a university can refuse a promised deferral depends heavily on exactly what was promised, by whom, in what form, and on what conditions. There is no simple yes or no. Below is how the law and the practical position work in England and Wales. Legal position: A deferral is not usually an absolute right. … Read more
Short answer: There is no automatic statutory rule that a university must refund your deposit if your Student visa is refused. Whether you get the deposit back depends first on the university’s own refund policy and the contract terms you agreed to, and second on general consumer protection law, which controls whether those terms are … Read more
This is a common and stressful situation. The short answer is that if your parents will not co-operate, you have some options, but the outcome depends heavily on your actual circumstances, in particular whether you are simply dealing with unco-operative parents or whether you are genuinely estranged from them. How student finance normally works: For … Read more
I need to understand a bit more about your situation, but let me set out the general position on challenging a failed placement or a biased assessor’s report at a university in England and Wales. Legal and procedural position: Yes, in principle you can challenge a failed placement or a report you believe is biased, … Read more
Racist, homophobic and transphobic abuse at a university can engage several overlapping frameworks: the institution’s internal disciplinary and complaints procedures, its legal duties under the Equality Act 2010, the Office for Students (OfS) regulatory expectations, and potentially the criminal law. How the abuse should be investigated depends on who committed it (student, staff member, or … Read more
Legal position: In almost all circumstances a university cannot refuse to allow an assistance dog in teaching spaces or in university-managed accommodation, because doing so is likely to amount to unlawful disability discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. A university is a “responsible body” of a further or higher education institution under Part 6 of … Read more
Before anything else, be honest with yourself about what has actually happened. In practice, most students who say they are being “blackmailed” by an essay-writing service are not describing blackmail at all. They are describing a payment dispute – very often one where the student ordered work, received it, then reversed the payment by way of a … Read more
Legal position: Yes, in most cases you can appeal a decision to withdraw you for poor attendance or engagement, but whether you succeed depends on the specific grounds your university allows and the evidence you can produce. Universities in England and Wales are not bound by a single statutory appeals code. Instead, each institution runs … Read more
Legal and procedural position: Yes, students can often challenge an assessment where an examination question was defective or fell outside the syllabus, but success depends heavily on the wording of the individual institution's academic appeal procedures and on how the complaint is framed. This is a higher education context, and there is no general statutory … Read more
Legal position: The short answer is that it depends on your student contract and, crucially, whether the university told you clearly before you accepted that fees or compulsory costs could rise. Universities in England and Wales are treated as traders and students as consumers, so university admissions and fees are governed by consumer protection law, … Read more
Short answer: For most residential assured shorthold tenancies, licences and lodger arrangements in England, no. Booking fees, administration fees, referencing fees, “portal” or account set-up fees, and guarantor fees are prohibited payments under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. A letting agent cannot lawfully require you to pay them. Legal position: The Tenant Fees Act 2019 … Read more
The rules on holding deposits for assured shorthold tenancies in England are set out in the Tenant Fees Act 2019, particularly Schedule 2. A holding deposit is a payment (capped at one week’s rent) that you make to reserve a property while the landlord or agent carries out checks and prepares the tenancy. It is … Read more
I'll look into the current position on this.Short answer: There is no automatic statutory right to a 14-day cancellation period for student accommodation in England and Wales. Whether you can cancel within 14 days depends mainly on the type of contract you signed and on the accommodation provider’s own cancellation policy. Many purpose-built student accommodation … Read more
Whether your student accommodation booking is legally binding depends on the type of accommodation, the exact wording of the terms you agreed to, and how far along the process you got. There is no single answer, so the key is to look at what you actually agreed to and when. The general legal position: A … Read more
Legal position: The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) allows certain non-UK family members of EU, EEA, or Swiss citizens to join them in the UK and obtain pre-settled or settled status, but eligibility is now limited following the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020. The scheme is not generally available for new … Read more
Legal position: Settled status under the UK's EU Settlement Scheme grants indefinite leave to remain in the UK. However, this status can lapse if you are absent from the UK, the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man for a continuous period exceeding five years. This rule is set out in the Immigration Rules (Appendix … Read more
Legal position: The EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) is administered by the UK Home Office and applies to EU, EEA, and Swiss citizens (and their family members) seeking to remain in the UK after Brexit. If your application is refused, the options depend on the reasons for refusal, the date of the decision, and whether it's … Read more
