Closed till September - why?

[emkana]

I don't understand unis that are already closing now till September. Seems rather premature when we don't actually know what will happen? I know there's talk of 10 to 12 weeks but still?

Does it not depend on what departments/experts these uni have within? They might be giving different advice depending on their research POV.

Anecdotally it’s being said that those with medical schools were the first to announce the shift to online. That’s certainly the case with my university vs DH’s.

That's to free up clinical staff.

Durham has no med school and was one of the very first.

Newcastle has a medical school and it is BAU still.

DD hasn’t been to lectures for weeks as she has avoided lecture theatres as there are often 200+ students in them. She has been doing them online after the lecture. But she is still attending meetings, tutorials, labs etc. and spends most of her time working in the labs. She cannot come home yet as she still has her project to finish and a group assignment. Her uni is switching to online lectures but for Stem students, there are still labs etc to be attended. Will be interesting to see what happens with her viva and exams as she is a final year student.

DS4 would be really disappointed not to sit his proper exams (also final year STEM) and DD4 (A levels) has said the same. Nothing to do with liking exams but everything to do with feeling the results would be phoney.

Durham hasn't closed, staff have been asked to turn all teaching online (with one working day's notice) for the final week of teaching, but it will still be happening. Everything else remains open. The Easter break starts at the end of this week anyway, which is a little different to those places with four or so weeks to go.

yes goodbye I think also if you've been working for 2 or 4 years towards an end point (exams) it would be psychologically quite hard not to get that external confirmation of your ability (or otherwise!)

Interesting gcacademic about the discussion etc, and the value of face to face - and indeed if there wasn't any such value what would be the point of going to university? (Actually there would still be a point, as a degree is a 'signal of individual value' to employers, but if students had been finding the 3 years of living away from home in a 'university institution' wholly pointless, a new signal would have been devised by now!).

Deianira students were told by e-mail that they could leave Durham a week early, last Friday. Term is scheduled to end this Friday. I think you're being a little semantic!

My understanding is that once in the clinical years, medical students are no longer governed by the University in the same way. And that it was a central decision to close medical schools to be able to redeploy teaching staff to front line care. It certainly felt like this. All through Friday afternoon DD and her friends were being reassured that the Academy would stay open as long as possible, and then in the early evening, they got an email saying it was closed with immediate effect. There are plenty of individual tales of havoc. Of international students not being able to fly home, of British students in Europe struggling to get on any flight. Even with a huge amount of discipline, watching You Tube videos is not going to make up for actually seeing patients.

I assume Universities are making individual decisions, based on local circumstances. LSE was one of the very first. Partly because most teaching can be done on-line (thought the great strength is the learning gained from being in a very diverse student body) and also because only 25% of students come from the UK so others were starting to scatter. Plus they start early in September and have a relatively short summer exam term, were not affected by strikes, and so much of their teaching would have been done. Durham may be worried that the proportionately large student body would put strains on the local health facilities (I don't know) or had other concerns. The point is that each University will have made its own decision.

DS is now in the US which is very odd. UGs were sent home overnight, and everything has gone on line. The supermarket was stripped completely bare within a couple of hours , and there is talk of lockdown. So from complacency to panic within a few days.

The common factor is that all we can do is sit and wait and hope for the best. When my mother had a fall and was diagnosed with dementia, the GP said I would need to make decisions. These might later prove to be good decisions or bad decisions, only time would tell. All I could do was make the best decisions I could in the light of the information I had at the time.

Also Deianira the libraries are still open but then they remain open out of term time. I'm not sure what else is open which marks the difference between term and not term. Being told you can go home is the determinant really.

Yes true Deinara, and other posters have also said Durham hasn't decided- whereas I think others have already said all face to face teaching is over until the next academic year.

I work at a Uni. Most unis are currently moving to online delivery, it will take some longer than others to out this in place. As of Friday only 8 Unis has closed as such as all had a confirmed CV case. We anticipate having assessments in August depending on how things have progressed. All our assessments are being converted at an online alternative. We are still open but it won’t be for long. We’ve had students ignore medical advice and still come into the building when their GP has told them to isolate. It is clear this self isolation will not work for us. We’ve had to tell students to leave, sometimes multiple times.

I think requiring staff to carry on teaching (online), and requiring the students to take the classes, even if from home, is a significant difference between closed and not, and not semantic! It's also worth saying that when the universities are actually closed, e.g. around Christmas, admin offices and libraries are closed (and those staff go home, which they are not currently even at most universities where teaching has moved online).

Christmas is different tbf. Ok, so I'm not that bothered, just saying really that it doesn't feel like proper term, it feels more like the break, and there are all sorts of knock on effects esp for particular subjects (less so for humanities) , so not really open open iyswim :)

August? On refelction, DS4 might prefer a phoney degree to an August degree.....

I refelcted a bit too fast just then :)

Graduating students will be prioritised so they can finish on time. August assessment only for continuing students but is only a suggestion at the moment.

Luckily DD has done most of her exams and assignments towards her final degree. Just her main project not finished, a group assignment, and I think 2 or 3 exams in May. Her exams from Xmas and 2d and 3rd years also could towards her final mark. I can see that her graduation will either be postponed or cancelled though. She has 2 induction days for her graduate job in June with a start date of September, so I hope nothing goes pear shaped with that. Lets be honest, a lot of jobs will go down the pan.

Unis will do everything they can to ensure students aren’t disadvantaged, well at my workplace that it the centre of all the conversations we’ve had. In our regulations we have the power to adjust cohort marks if we deem students to have been impacted by something outside of their control, usually for some like a fire alarm in an exam, but this would certainly be a reason.

My university has gone online (4 weeks to go until break for Easter) and this week people are still on strike anyway.
All my lot (first year law) are asking for extension on essays due next week, which I think odd as we have more time now to do them. (Unless you have to move country for example)
And demanding to know what is on the exam paper do we can revise better lol. We don't even know the format of exams so how can they know what subjects will be examined! And if done at home, open book, I assume that's far easier so anything can be examined.

And demanding to know what is on the exam paper do we can revise better lol

One of the first things that DD's biomed group were told was they they weren't taught to the exam, and that they would have to think for themselves. This means they have to revise everything.

They were told that they were no longer at school, and had to take responsibility for their own learning. This is at a medium ranking RG university.

Well yes, that's what I'd expect too (subject to telling us some items won't be included as effected by strikes)
My first year does count 50% (as it's a 2 year accelerated degree) so hopefully whatever happens doesn't affect me too dis proportionately, though as I am just doing the degree "for fun" (I laugh at that now) the end result doesn't matter for me like it does for most students.

I think it's a reasonable question though - a bit like Emkana I wondered on another thread what the rationale for these measures is at places where there are not yet any reported cases (of course I realise that isn't any longer so significant as there won't be testing of non-hospitalised!), and there hasn't been any advice from DfE or DoH to go online/close

Universities also employ adults of all ages, and with all sorts of underlying health conditions. They need to be kept safe; anyone over 55 with an underlying health condition (immuno-suppressed, or asthmatic, for example) is at far more risk than a healthy 20 year old undergrad.

It's not just about the students, you know.

For kids who have done their three years, having the final term and its celebrations taken away is very sad
it will affect them for life

That is my DS too Listening, final term of his integrated masters!