More than 1,000 students, including at least 45 in Wales, have signed a collective legal action hoping to force universities to pay compensation for teaching time lost during the recent strike.

The international law firm behind the group action says universities could face paying £10m each in compensation.

Across the UK 64 universities, including four in Wales, were hit by 14 days of walk-outs by members of the University College Union in a row over pensions.

The strike has been suspended but students, many of whom supported staff fighting for their pension rights, say they have lost valuable tuition time they paid for.

Support for legal action includes students from Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Oxford, Cambridge and Bristol. Manchester University tops the list with most student sign-ups while Cardiff comes sixth in the UK with 44 sign ups.

Achieving 1,000 sign ups means that the group claim has enough students to apply for a Group Litigation Order. Lawyers say they will apply for this now and also expect signatories to snowball.

Lecturers take strike action at Cardiff University

A total of 27% of sign-ups so far are overseas students and 17% (165).

Thousands of students in Wales are already among more than 100,000 who have already signed petitions protesting against the loss of lectures and other classes they have paid for through tuition fees.

Now 44 at Cardiff University and one at Aberystwyth have signed the group action claim. The other universities in Wales hit by the strike were Bangor and the University of Wales Trinity St David. It is not known if students from those have signed.

Cardiff University student David Netherwood said he signed the group action because he is angry students are not being treated as consumers.

He said some of his lectures and seminars were cancelled and work not marked during the strike. Re-arranged teaching was shortened.

The post graduate planning practice student said: “We are not being treated as consumers but a university degree is a consumer good and should be treated as such.

“A couple of pieces of my work were not marked but what has been more stressful has been getting extensions for work and finding out about things at the last minute.

“Seminars key for our course work were re-delivered after the strike to a poorer standard. What should have been a two hour seminar was one hour.

“I am working on a site design and meant to be using two computer programmes, one of which I don’t understand.

“I am angry. For me it’s about the principle and the fact we’ve not been treated as consumer. We want our voices heard. We don’t feel this has been recognised.”

The UCU strike will affect 14 days of learning across 61 UK institutions

Shimon Goldwater, a senior solicitor at Asserson, the specialist law firm that has created the compensation claim website, said: “No other service provider would get away with charging for 25 weeks of a service and cutting that to 22 with no price reduction. There is no question that universities owe students fair compensation.

“If the class action is accepted, universities would pay out millions of pounds. Over 20,000 undergraduates attend each large UK university. Paying approximately £500 compensation each to 20,000 students would cost £10m.

“We’re expecting a surge of sign ups over the coming weeks. This is already one of the largest student group legal actions ever to have been launched in the UK.”

the Collective Court Action claim would likely be for breach of contract to seek damages for lost teaching time.

Asserson now plans to apply for a Group Litigation Order. Once that is granted, students not part of the group would still have a few months within which to join the collective action.

A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “We recognise disruption caused by the industrial action has been a source of great concern for some of our students. Our priority and commitment throughout has been, and continues to be, to ensure that all students are provided with appropriate opportunities for learning and assessment.

“Our current position regarding potential compensation is clear, the point at which a student should seek to make a complaint in relation to the impact of the industrial action will be at the end of the academic year, following the application of the mitigating measures.

“If at this stage a student remains dissatisfied they can submit a complaint through the University Complaints Procedure which allows financial compensation as one of a number of remedies.”

Aberystwyth University said in a statement: “The university has been doing everything it can to minimise any actual disruption as a result of past strike action, and to fulfil its learning and teaching obligations to students.

“As part of careful contingency planning, missed teaching is either being rescheduled within a reasonable time or other mitigating actions put in place. By doing so, our aim is to ensure students are not disadvantaged and are able to achieve the learning outcomes of their modules and degree programmes.”

The group action claim can be seen at www.universitycompensation.co.uk