US college students are stepping up demands for partial tuition refunds for the spring semester, with a growing number pursuing legal action against institutions they accuse of overstating virus-related financial losses. The students have filed lawsuits against more than a dozen universities, in some cases citing the institutions’ own data showing they had been charging existing online students far less for the same courses.

Aided by a handful of law firms, the students are pursuing elite private institutions as well as smaller public schools, in some cases citing their own advertised rates for online versions of their in-person classes.

“Every business in America is having to tighten its belt,” says Roy Willey, a lawyer with the Anastopoulo Law Firm in South Carolina that has already sued at least 15 colleges and is considering taking action against dozens more. “And the only question is whether colleges and universities should be any different.”

Universities are generally refraining from commenting on their own legal cases, but higher education leaders have repeatedly emphasised the financial losses being suffered across academia because of the need to suddenly shut down their campuses and send students home to avoid spreading Covid-19. Congress so far has approved $14 billion (Rs.105,952 crore) in emergency aid for universities and their students. But higher education lobbyists say the true need is many times that.

Several US colleges have already refunded shares of room and board charges for the spring semester, at a budgetary hit that their main lobby group, the American Council on Education (ACE), has estimated at $8 billion (Rs.60,000 crore).

Universities are warning that even deeper losses await in the months ahead, as the nation’s surging unemployment rates translate into deep governmental budget cuts and students unwilling or unable to return to their campuses in the fall (autumn).