When do you think universities will open?

[googlepoodle]

I would think they would be definitely be working to a September deadlines for the new academic year.
But do we think any sooner? I am professional services staff and currently working from home.

The 80% is for me and pals who are working 100% hours.

There are also colleagues on 80% furlough. Which has annoyed some! But the argument has been to help protect us all.

@newgirls

Do you mind me asking what sector you work in? Is this education or somewhere else?

The 80% is for me and pals who are working 100% hours

In academia?

Academic publishing

I've heard of several places where the principal/president/whatever has announced they're taking a 10-20% pay cut over the next six months and a few places where this is extended to other members of senior management (at the same or reduced rate). A colleague who's a dean of faculty in the US has had a similar pay cut. I assume such moves are just the first steps towards redundancies or more widespread pay cuts. Lots of places also doing a salary / promotion freeze effective immediately, no GTA recruitment for next year (with obvious implications), and of course no new or replacement hiring of any kind.

I’ve heard Durham university are making 20% of staff redundant

Havent read the whole thread yet, but will!

what will be the impact on students’ decisions about whether to start the first year or not, or drop out of second year (maybe even third, though less likely) if the courses are going to be online rather than ‘the real thing’ in autumn? I would assume some won’t want to pay 9k for that?
Presumably the government is taking into account the effect of many 18-21 yr olds trying to be in the labour market instead of going to university in september, when its considering the universities’ predicaments?

I’ve heard Durham university are making 20% of staff redundant

Heard from where?

@googlepoodle
Where did you hear that?

Okay, now read the whole thread. I agree that online-only works much better for some subjects than others (lab work etc) - but for the Prospective students who want the social life aspect, its still quite a deterrent.
What puzzles me is (and have mentioned on other threads, so sorry for repeating) - if universities dont start ‘properly’ in september, when do they? The later in the autumn, the closer to winter flu they get, dont they? And the age-risk profile of students may mean that moving into halls/lecture rooms is an acceptable risk for them anyway. (I do appreciate there are some older and some vulnerable students, and that the staff age/risk profile is obviously a different issue.)

Universities will have to become more creative with the teaching and experience they offer their students, otherwise what is the point? Why not use the Open University which is already geared towards online learning?

Or could they just open in september? If schools go back in june (i realise this is an if) it may be considered reasonable for universities to open in september, given the age/risk profile. I realise this may sound simplistic!
Also have to bear in mind there may be a cohort of 18 yr olds who dont want to leave home now, as they ll feel safer with their families. Will there be an increase in those who choose to go to local universities?

We are to be open in September, hopefully with some students physically present. We anticipate having a large number studying remotely as well. So we are spending the summer (those without exams to mark are starting right now) revamping courses to make them suitable. There seems to be a good plan in place to make this possible. This will be a step up from our emergency movement of materials online that happened at the end of last term. We’ve been unequivocally told that teaching is now the top priority, explicitly more important than research. In all my 30 years here I have never heard that before. Strange times. And people are definitely rising to the challenge and excited about the possibilities. We’re an engineering department so the challenges are there for labs etc, but engineers solve problems with technology- it’s pretty much the definition of what we are.

Chemenger thats interesting, are you reasonably confident that new 1st yrs will start in the same numbers as usual if its online only? Would be interesting to know what the forecasts are. Im thinking about uk residents - i assume internat students will be down.

And (plse dont Anyone shout at me, or alternatively you can if you feel like it), why is it being assumed now that it will be online? If schools are going to be back, which i think is still the assumption, why aren’t universities thinking they can be - genuine question, not trying to be combative?

And finally, how long are universities thinking they will be online for? If they dont open in september, its hard to see how it gets better in the following months, given winter flu.

Oops i misread slightly chemenger - you are expecting some to be physically present. Is that because you think many students will choose to be online rather than physically present?

But schools are completely different from universities, in terms of the number of people meeting. Suppose a teaching building has 10 lecture rooms, average capacity 50, and 9 teaching hours per day. That's potentially close to 6000 coming in and out of the building during the day - a completely different scale to even the largest secondary schools.

Now think about the number of different ways that students can intersect with these other: not just lectures, but in the union, halls of residence, on campus food outlets, societies, sports. The number of people closely connected to each other is absolutely huge.

I would wonder whether chemenger is associated with the Scottish university that has indicated it will be doing widespread testing on campus?

I really hope universities do open in September. I would imagine the challenge though is not just packed lectures but the socialising in big groups that students do. After all ‘freshers flu’ is known for a reason.
It would also be hard for first years moving away from home for the first time if they had to socially distance in university accommodation.
I’m hopeful that we will have a few months of relaxed restrictions before September so we could see what the numbers do but that will be hard for students having to make decisions in the next few months.

As PS staff we are working very efficiently from home and still busy so think we will be from home for a while.

@1963mes cross posted with you!

Good point 1963, i suppose i am also thinking that the age/risk profile means that it would be acceptable. (This is all assuming that there is no change in the drug treatment position - obviously if there is then that becomes even more the case).
I hadnt heard about university proposing testing on campus - but if track and trace is up then presumably that would also make a difference to the risk analysis? Universities could perhaps have their own tracing units - expensive, but so are the alternatives!

Two letters in the times today focusing on the plight of university students.

This thread has been very interesting reading as a teacher. Increasingly worrying though, as the parent of a Y13 hoping to start in September. There’s no way my DS will want to (or even be able to) study remotely in his first year. He wants to go as much to live ‘away’ and meet new people, as to study-though clearly he does still want to study. I can see it being possible in year 2/3 when you have already build your a network of friends, relationships with tutors, study skills and awareness of expectations, but I think they would flounder.

I can’t see him or his friends paying thousands and thousands of pounds to stay at home and study either.

Nobody’s fault, of course-I can’t see a solution either.

I don’t think we are the university that intends to test on campus, but it has crossed my mind that we would be in a good position to do so. We working on the assumption that some or all of our home (UK) students will be able to be on campus but many overseas students won’t be. We’re also anticipating further lockdown periods when nobody can attend.

Ah, cross posted google, yes the freshers flu analogy is a Very good point!

I suppose you would bin freshers week (for some but not all students that wont be a great loss!)

Im not sure you can socially distance in hall - shared kitchens and so on.? I suppose you could have a rota? But i suppose i am more focused on the relatively low risk to (Most of) the students themselves - i realise that is not addressing the question of infecting others.

Still interested in whether students will actually sign up to £9k of fees for online-only. On the other hand as other pp say, what else will they do - labour market wont be great, travel will be tricky?

How much are the fees for an OU degree?

£18K total apparently.

I think the situation will evolve over the coming weeks: widespread testing on campus + tracing apps + enhanced cleaning regimes + avoiding running large classes in person + .... can all be combined to suppress the rate of transmission and effectively implement quarantine. Then at least 1st years + students requiring hands on classes such as labs can be on campus.