Legal threat over lecturers' dispute

Lawyers are to encourage students to sue their university or college for "breach of contract" if their degree course is disrupted by the increasingly bitter academics' pay dispute.

Legal firms are planning visits to universities and have issued leaflets to students and their parents urging them to consider legal action if exams are not assessed or marked as part of the boycott by academic staff, according to the Times Higher Education Supplement.

The prospect of the dispute turning litigious came as informal talks between academics' unions and university bosses broke down yet again this week.

Lecturers' unions embarked on industrial action last month. Academics are refusing to cover colleagues' classes, mark students' work or contribute to the exam process as part of a continuing boycott.

Emma Turner, a lawyer with Sinclairs Solicitors, said her firm was planning to visit universities to talk to students and their parents about their rights.

"If students are partly paying for their course out of their own pockets they will be concerned to make sure they are getting what they are contracted to have. There could be a case of breach of contract if the boycott is having a direct effect on their study," she said.

John Brooks, the vice-chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University, said students' changing attitudes were reflected in e-mail correspondence.

"A number of them have expressed concerns about the contract they believe they have with the university and what the situation would be if there was a delay in processing their exam papers," he said.