£9 million spent through Eating at Warwick in the last three years

Over £9 million was spent through the soon to be discontinued Eating at Warwick scheme in the last three years.

The University of Warwick announced that the scheme will be discontinued on 31 March 2021.

Originally, the scheme was due to be discontinued on 31 July 2020, but this was delayed due to Covid-19 disruption.

The University’s justification for the decision is that “the technology that underpins the scheme has reached its end of life” and that it has become “outdated”.

The Eating at Warwick scheme allowed staff and students to pay for food and drink around campus by adding credit to their account, with the majority of food and drink outlets providing a 10% discount if purchases were made with Eating at Warwick.

A Freedom of Information (FoI) request by The Boar has shown that in the past three years the scheme has continually increased in popularity, with both more people using it and more money being spent through the system.

In the 2016/17 academic year, £2,714,000 worth of credit was added to the system, rounded to the nearest thousand pound. £2,678,000 of credit was spent during the same time period.

In the 2017/18 academic year, this had increased to £3,097,000 being added as credit with £3,069,000 worth of credit being spent throughout the year.

16,778 unique Eating at Warwick accounts had credit added to them in the 2018/19 academic year

The most recent figures for the 2018/19 academic year show an even larger increase with £3,726,000 added to Eating at Warwick accounts and £3,702,000 spent through the scheme, a 38.2% increase on the 2016/2017 figures.

The number of accounts that had money added to their account also rose year on year. In the 2016/17 there were 11,850 unique accounts that had credit added to their account.

This increased to 14,946 unique accounts in the 2017/18 academic year and again to 16,778 in 2018/19.

The average amount spent by each unique account does not replicate the pattern of year on year increase. For 2016/17, each account spent on average £226, rounded to the nearest pound. come generated from fines is reinvested into the University Library.

This dropped by 9% in the 2017/18 academic year with the average spend per account falling to £205. It increased to £221 spent per account in 2018/19, which was still £5 lower than in 2016/17.

The University is “advising everyone to spend their balance on campus” before the scheme is withdrawn in March. Some on campus outlets such as the Dirty Duck are currently not accepting payments made by the Eating at Warwick scheme, as all orders must be made online to adhere to Covid-19 safety restrictions.

An average of £221 was spent per account in the 2018/19 academic year

There is an option for staff and students to receive a refund for unspent credit on their Eating at Warwick account if they are unable to spend the credit before the scheme is withdrawn.

Students that graduate and staff that leave the University also have the option to receive a refund for unspent credit. On average, £1,800 has been issued in refunds for staff and students that are no longer part of the University in the past three academic years.

There are no current plans for a re-placement scheme to be imple- mented in April.

When asked by The Boar about the likelihood of a new scheme, the University replied: “There will be no immediate replacement from 31 March 2021.

“However, with the world changing around us due to Covid-19, and with the more high street brands coming onto campus, we recognize that this is a timely opportunity to identify a modern and more relevant solution that better meets the needs of our campus community.”