UNIVERSITY students are seeking compensation to cover wasted tuition fees as a result of their lecturers holding “unprecedented” strike action.

A petition has been set up by students at the University of Sussex demanding £300 compensation for everyone who loses contact time in their studies due to the strike, which takes place over 14 days from today until March 16.

Thousands of students across the country are calling for money that would have been paid to lecturers during the strike period to be repaid to them as the dispute over proposed changes to pensions escalates.

Kaya Mughal, 20, an international relations student at the university, said: “This is the biggest strike action of this kind ever done.

“We currently pay £9,250 per year for tuition and I don’t get a lot of teaching time per year anyway.

“For students in their third year going through their dissertations and finals it is going to have a massive effect on them.

“We support our lecturers and stand with them but we are consumers at the end of the day.

“The unprecedented magnitude of the proposed strikes will be extremely damaging to all students.”

University and College Union (UCU) members are taking industrial action over plans to end the defined benefit element of the Universities Superannuation Scheme pension scheme, which the union claims will leave them £10,000 worse off a year when they retire.

Universities UK (UUK), the group representing universities, refused to hold talks with the union to seek a resolution.

The university’s law society has written an open letter to Adam Tickell, the university’s vice-chancellor, demanding their fees be returned for the 14 days they will lose.

The University of Sussex Student Union voted to back strike action but also took the decision to support students being compensated.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: ‘We deliberately announced these strike dates to give universities time to come back round the table with us and get this mess sorted out.

“They have refused to do so and want to impose their reforms on staff.”

Ms Hunt said the union will meet on March 2 to discuss what the second wave of industrial action may involve.

UUK said the pension contributions would have to increase by £1 billion each year to cover the pension scheme’s current £6.1 billion deficit.