Restarting Universities

In summary, my proposal would allow for the restarting of universities for the next academic year in a manner as close to normal as possible.

Right now most universities are finishing up their spring term after being forced to go online due to the COVID-19 outbreak. While I admire the effort of staff to adapt teaching to new technologies at such a short notice, it is clear that it would be a significant challenge to move the September-December semester online and retain the attention and support of students as would happen with face to face teaching, and would likely result in many students opting to deter if they were made to study online. Further, from a moral standpoint, it seems massively unfair to deprive our young people of such an important time in their life due to a virus which is statistically less likely to impact them than older generations. Therefore, I would propose that we make immediate plans to allow for the reopening of universities come September as normal.

I will first outline my proposals to safeguard those who are venerable.

It would be wrong for us to ask vulnerable staff to work at our universities for the benefit of our youth, which is why we must ensure that those people are supported to work from home. This may include having a handful of lectures provided online, which would be unavoidable but would be preferable for most students than having their entire course provided online.

Likewise, vulnerable students should have access to the same materials that they would otherwise receive from in-person teaching. This would mean asking our universities to make an instant adjustment to their policies to mandate lecture recording and online assignment submissions. Tutorial and seminar groups could be organised over zoom for vulnerable students on the same course, ensuring that they still get some semblance of an education - even if an imperfect one.

Now, this does still mean that the majority will be rightfully back on campus - and so we should look at how we make this safe for them and the community at large.

For the majority who find themselves back on university campuses, we should ask that when outside of the "university community" they continue to enforce strict social distancing and limit such interactions to only absolutely essential activities such as shopping, and they should limit their trips back to their hometowns to the bare minimum.

In relation to international students, it is likely that this intake will see less international students come than before, but it is likely that some may still end up coming - particularly as we don't yet know how the pandemic will pan out across the world. All students from outside the United Kingdom should be asked to arrive 14 days early, and then be asked to isolate themselves - with the assistance of their university providing accommodation and food - for that 14 day period, to ensure that they do not have coronavirus.

The second one moves students into student accommodation, they are going to have gatherings, and that is why Freshers Week should proceed as planned - with the Government working with student union leaders to ensure that temperature checks are in place on entry to events, and potentially a slight shift away from club events to other evening events involving alcohol. It is better to run freshers week in a controlled way than let students try to run it themselves in flat parties. After this week, there should then be a scheduled week break in the timetable, where students are encouraged to self-isolate - and then continue to self-isolate if they show signs of coronavirus.

With this plan, we can allow our young people to continue to have the education they deserve and limit the impacts this virus will have on them - while ensuring that very few people are put at significant risk to enable it.

Young people are already losing a lot of key memories and life events due to this pandemic - as are all of us. They have seen events such as leaving balls cancelled, their 18th birthdays will be spent in a house, there is no end of term holiday option - and those already at university have seen events cancelled too. While these were necessary to stem the tide of the virus, we must be real and acknowledge that there are significant mental health costs to this continuing to happen into the future.

Many young people will struggle to respond to online teaching and struggle consequentially with the academic side of university - and it seems profoundly unfair to ask fee paying rUK students to fork up £9,250 for a few recordings and powerpoint slides. Indeed, many courses cannot be taught online, while many others have significant difficulty doing so.

It seems only fair to allow our young people the chance for a relatively normal university experience - even if one isolated from much of the rest of society - given they are the least affected by the virus but the worst hit by its other impacts on society, the economy, and mental health.