Will other unis follow Cambridge and say no face to face lectures for the whole of next year?

[WhatP1antWhere]

If so won’t that cause huge levels of deferring and a tight squeeze on places for the following years coming up. Places will surely go to those who have deferred first.Just feeling for year 11. Exams cancelled, no support from schools, term ending early, Alevels courses going to be disrupted and potentially now huge competition for uni places.

To be honest it’s a bit more complicated than possibly missing out on freshers week. My DD is planning on going to Uni in September to study Physiotherapy . How will she be able to do this with social distancing? The whole degree is vocational And at the end they should walk out fully trained as physiotherapists with 1000 hours of practical training under their belt. They can’t do this remotely .
And there are loads of degrees needing similar practical intervention. I am more than happy for my DD to go to Uni and pay £9k+ A year if Unis can deliver this but am concerned they may not be able to . Ultimately Universities with the introduction of the loan scheme have set themselves up as businesses and if this years cohort of students can’t see the value in the service Unis are offering why should they go.

Universities didn't set up the loan scheme. Universities were against it!!
That will be the government...... universities had no choice.

Yes courses like engineering can’t do remote learning easily.

Courses are being looked at on a course by course basis.
Those that need on campus teaching are being prioritised to be brought back onto campus first.

It's not going to be blanket remote teaching across all courses.

Also, modules and courses will be reorganised. Those modules that can be delivered remotely will be ...even on practical courses. It might be that practical work is delayed until semester 2.
Most courses will be looking at a mix of remote and on campus.

I work for a university and as people have said we have a whole suite of plans - online, face-to-face, mixed, delayed start (though only for PG). The problem is absolutely no one knows what will be possible in September. It may be that we're more or less back to normal, that people are in pubs and restaurants and commuting just as they were before and so trying to enforce social distancing will look really silly and we'll all look back and roll our eyes at the idea that it would be 18 students to a lecture theatre. It might be that we're in lockdown 2, following a second wave and online is the only option for everything. It might be somewhere between the two. Universities (like many other sectors, of course) are in a very hard place because they're being pressed for certainty in a totally uncertain situation.

It's a BEd so different to PGCE

All the courses we have seen for open days and dd for interviews have stressed how hands on and non lecture based the courses are. It's one of the things that comes up on every visit.

Many years ago I did a BEd at secondary level and had very few lectures.

We shall see I guess.

Interestingly our school has already had universities and teaching courses requesting placements from September. School haven't made a decision yet.

For the place she wants to go to I don't think the first placement is until after Christmas so gives them a bit more time.

Stir I am in the same boat; was due to go back to speech therapy degree in January having been off for two years with illness .

Course was 95% placement based and days in care homes, Alzheimers groups, schools, nurseries, GP surgeries ... lectures in hospitals etc ... Plus en masse classes with BEds and Social work students ...

How the Jeff can you socially distance as a speech and language therapist ?! I can’t see how that would ever be possible - half the time you need to be very close to the patient/client’s face !!

And yes halls would concern me too - used to live in a building that housed 150 students ... one front door . Shared laundrette . Shares toilets and showers between 10-15 of us . Kitchen used by 10 of us on a daily basis - two fridges ... that’s a very concerning thought .

@StrawberryBlondeStar this is a huge miscon doit-on. For most courses at oxford and Cambridge the large majority of teaching hors are lectures. They do have more tutorials/seminars and classes than at other universities but it still mostly lectures especially for humanities students.

*misconcpetion

@WhatP1antWhere - can I ask why you say " Just feeling for year 11" ?
It is the current year 12s who will be competing with all the defered applications for uni entry in 2021. How will year 11 be affected more than year 12?

It’ll back up surely. If students in year 12 can’t get places they’ll try again the following year and with grades get many of the places, or not. No idea how it works.Not discounting other years but year 11 have zero motivation as it is. No work, nothing to focus on, off the radar with schools.....

Universities didn't set up the loan scheme. Universities were against it!! were they? They wanted the money though I think?

I would definitely encourage them to go in Sept. What else are they going to do for a start??

I think fees should be cut though.

@cinammonbuns I read history at Oxford. The tutorials were far more important then lectures.

Universities didn't set up the loan scheme. Universities were against it!! were they? They wanted the money though I think?

Yes we were. Very much so.
We actually get a lot less money under the post 2012 finance system.
Prior to this the government funded courses directly. From 2012 the government removed up to 90% of funding from universities and passed it on to the student themselves. They also eventually moved student number controls meaning some universities lost even more money.
In many cases the £9k fees don't even cover the cost of running a course. Lots of universities are completely on their arse financially.

You'll be hard pressed to find a university or any university staff who is in favour of the current system.

I think fees should be cut though.

If this was to happen there will be far fewer universities around in 12-18 months time and some forced to close will be well known, elite institutions.
I work in a post 92 institution and we are financially secure. Our russell group neighbour is not as fortunate and have already asked staff to take a pay cut.

@StrawberryBlondeStar your posts said that most of the teaching is down is smaller groups which is incorrect. It’s great that you found the tutorials more helpful but there are way more lecture contact hours than tutorials.

@cinnamonbuns are you really suggesting people will defer their places at Oxbridge because they can’t physically go into a lecture hall for a lecture?

The unique selling point of Oxbridge is the small tutorials. That’s where the real teaching is going on.

Oxbridge will be far better placed to bring students back given how teaching is done.

I can't get worked up about lectures being online. As long as they have seminars and supervisions that's fine.

They do have more tutorials/seminars and classes than at other universities but it still mostly lectures especially for humanities students.

This is really not the case.

I don't think I went to many lectures (english lit)!