Will universities require students to be vaccinated?

[Circumlocutious]

I’m curious because this is happening in the US at a widespread scale (requiring vaccination by autumn term), but there’s been no mention of it here. Some are offering incentives such as exemption from mask mandates if you’ve been vaccinated.

I don't see how they can. I can't imagine everyone in the cohort will be fully vaccinated by August/September.

I don't think they will.

I'm imagining fresher's flu on a grand scale this September. Thankfully at least the staff will be vaccinated by then.

Legal challenges if they do I imagine/hope!

I would be interested to know how they will manage the over 18s though after the initial vaccine programme. Lots of students arriving in September will only turn 18 in the weeks before they arrive.

I would hope that there will be a good programme and take up otherwise I guess we risk mutations of the bluddy virus.

God I hope my August born DS gets offered before he goes in September. He's the only one if my three I worry about 😟, he's not got the best health.

I hope they get offered the one dose, if approved here in July. Otherwise it will be a huge task to get their second vaccine, not being at home. I don’t think it will be compulsory and will have to see what the uptake is.

Plus lots of international students...how will that work?

@RosieLemonade

I don't see how they can. I can't imagine everyone in the cohort will be fully vaccinated by August/September.

Well the plan was to have it done by end of July! However, that was reliant on a high % of AZ doses - I think a switch to Pfizer/Moderna will slow things down considerably.

@Mumteedum

I would be interested to know how they will manage the over 18s though after the initial vaccine programme. Lots of students arriving in September will only turn 18 in the weeks before they arrive.

I would hope that there will be a good programme and take up otherwise I guess we risk mutations of the bluddy virus.

And some don't turn 18 until AFTER arrival. For me it was 3 weeks later, but a friend didn't turn 18 until the following March!

@bookworm1632 in Scotland I think? Yes, that's true. We don't have any under 18s in our uni though. Interesting point though that if Scottish students chose to study in England it must happen. Hadn't really thought about that. There's extra safeguarding rules in that scenario too. We're too far south and not exactly Oxford so havent ever had an under 18 student from Scotland.

I want DD vaccinated, but if she's not offered it in time for uni and they make it a term of attendance that would be so unfair.
They have missed it on so much to protect the older generations when they have been so low risk throughout, it would be an insult to expect this.

Well the wishy-washy VCs here won't do anything to put paying customers off... don't worry. Yes it would be unfair if vaccines aren't offered in time.

I think that any requirement will not be from the universities, but perhaps for international students to return in person. If the government can make a decision in a reasonable timescale.

I hope the fuck not.

[quote Mumteedum]@bookworm1632 in Scotland I think? Yes, that's true. We don't have any under 18s in our uni though. Interesting point though that if Scottish students chose to study in England it must happen. Hadn't really thought about that. There's extra safeguarding rules in that scenario too. We're too far south and not exactly Oxford so havent ever had an under 18 student from Scotland.[/quote]
No - England - quite a few years back though, although it must still happen because there's technically nothing to prevent it.

I doubt it but given how students have been ignored since Christmas, I am not at all convinced they'll even be going back in October, not properly anyway.

I study (PhD) and teach at a campus university. Yes we had a surge of cases in undergrad students in October/November but it was very self-contained. No staff members caught it from student contact. Very few postgrad students caught it. And it didn't spread round the city. I know in some cities it caused mayhem - but not all, and we're all being tarred with the same brush.

With the extent of vaccination in the general population by Sept/Oct, in the absence of any scary new variant, I can't see why they would need to be vaxxed to return.

Re under-18s, I used to work in uni admissions in England. Under-18s are a big deal, there are various safeguarding arrangements in place. They are a definite minority.

Hopefully they will be offered at least the first vaccine by July. Which will hugely improve rates. Luckily, take up is likely to be quite high amongst students as they are the ones who will want to go to festivals, concerts, traveling etc

The US are in a better position to achieve this than the UK because they are not rigidly sticking to completing one entire age group before moving onto the next. So younger age groups are able to access the vaccine there. Older people and those who don't want the vaccine are seen as having had their chance and the system moves on, apparently at least. I have heard of plenty of young people in the USA getting offered vaccines now. I don't know if this is varies by state or not though.

it makes far more sense than the chaos of entire blocks of flats of students being infected all at once and being locked in tiny student rooms for weeks on end with only remote learning. That situation can only happen the first time, this year the authorities and universities have to learn from mistakes and do better.

I don't think they'll require it but it will be strongly recommended, like having the meningitis jab. And if these stupid vaccine passports are introduced they'll need it for other things anyway.

If they have the Janssen vaccine it will be one dose so they can all be done before they go.

When I went to uni, they did a drop in cpinic for meningitis vaccines (a much more dangerous disease to young adults) around fresher's week.

It's not that tricky to set up a pop-up clinic to fill the gaps in those who hadn't been vaccinated yet. Universities have the space and infrastructure to sort it, and outbreaks are not the risk to the wider community that they were last September.

Definitely plenty under 18s go to uni in Scotland. I wasn’t 18 until December after I started and ds 2 who goes next year won’t be 18 until the end of October after he starts.

The exam format here also means you can go to uni after 5th year of school. One of my kids friends skipped 3rd year because he’s bright and he’s off to study medicine in September only a few months after turning 17.

Yes that's what I thought... Scottish exams allow it. More unusual with A level students. My birthday is right at end of school year... so another week or so and I'd have been in the year below. Even so I would have turned 18 before going to university but only just. Not sure how students would have their level 3 quals in England before turning 18 for uni. I have never come across an under 18 student at our uni since I've been there.

So only those who have risked a vaccine that isn’t safe and have survived it get to enter tertiary education?

Way to go.

No indication that it is under discussion where I work, although it could be. Face to face group teaching is something that comes up more, given the question of capacity, timetabling and cleaning.

That said, though, when the university testing centres were set up in December, I was involved in those in a minor way. There were about 2 weeks (just under) to get them workable and ready within a window for those tested to either leave or isolate before travelling, which meant lots of staff dropping everything to recruit, plan, and set up bookings of up to 200 per day. Some essential materials to do with the different types of training were not actually sent through until the Friday of week 1. It was pretty last-minute and this makes me wonder whether something similar would be seen with vaccination messages.