Graduate gets £61,000 after suing her uni for ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree

A graduate has been given £60,000 after suing her former uni for giving her a "Mickey Mouse" degree

Pok Wong graduated from Anglia Ruskin University in 2013 with a first in international business strategy, which she now refers to as "a Mickey Mouse degree".

Now aged 30, she has sued the university for falsely advertising "high-quality" teaching and over-exaggerating its employability factor.

Ms Wong, also known as Fiona, has stated that she experienced a shortage of teaching staff and continuous punctuality issues from lecturers.

She added that only 20 to 30 percent of the teaching time was "actually spent teaching", and when they were being taught, concepts were explained very poorly.

“I raised my complaints with the university but they didn’t do anything," Ms Wong said, "I was the only student who complained so perhaps that was my own issue."

After a court rejected Wong's £15,000 claim last year, she was told to pay £13,750 of the uni's legal costs.

However, the university's insurers then offered to settle for £15,000, and pay £46,000 of Wong's legal costs – a total of £61,000.

The university say they don't accept the settlement, and that they think their insurers' solicitors "acted negligently and against the university's interests."

Despite the payout, Anglia Ruskin has maintained that the case does not prove that the university was at fault.

She later said: “The university is focused on its own commercial interests rather than those of the students.

“Their focus is on how to recruit as many students as possible regardless of their resources.”

Even after being awarded with a First-class-degree, she has found that doors have not been opened for her, rather they have remained shut.

The Guardian report that Anglia Ruskin offered her money in exchange for settling the issue through a private, non-disclosure agreement. Allegedly, Ms Wong agreed to sign for a higher amount but the university declined.

However, Ms Wong is unhappy with the final payment figure; she argues that the £61,000 settlement barely accounts for the time and effort she put into fighting this case, not to mention her extensive tuition fees.

Anglia Ruskin is currently ranked 118th in the UK's Complete University Guide.