Paying for Accommodation - for 100% online teaching!

[DidoAtTheLido]

This year's students are getting such a rough deal.

My DS is about to start Uni. To begin with they promised 'blended teaching' - online lectures, in person tutorials, and lab time. It is a lab-based practical subject.

Now he has had an e mail, ALL teaching will be online until at least Christmas.

So basically they are paying full price for a course that is delivered in a second best way, and paying to move cities and live in expensive accommodation (in hall) when if it is all online they could stay at home.

Teachers are having to go back to work , this is the age group least affected by COVID, they are away from families so not spreading to older members.

I think this is totally unfair treatment of young people taking out massive loans and parents paying huge sums of money. If they really can't deliver the education properly, the students shouldn't have to pay for it.

Does anyone know of any campaigns or petitions about this?

What form would this be taking. Small seminar teaching? lab work? How many in a group? How often would a student typically see you in person (not face to face zoom).

In normal times my students would see me for 10 hours a week plus regular one to one tutorials. This year it will be 6 hours with additional teaching via Teams. All tutorials will be remote.
They will be around 20-25 per group ( if they all turn up!) and it will be a lecture/seminar format

University and College Union demanded that all university teaching be moved online for this coming year.
104 academics wrote a letter to The Times last Friday rejecting the demand.
Is there a hope that after Christmas there will be any face to face teaching?
Or the Union will get their way?

Also university education could become more fluid not necessarily tied to a 3 year full time/part time course starting at a particular time With maybe courses divided into modules which could be accessed at any time or multiple start points throughout the year at the students convenience

Like the open university.

Teachers in primary and secondary education are back at work with bigger groups and with more chaotic children - why are Uni staff at more risk? they have more leeway to plan small group teaching, and lab work has everyone kitted out in PPE anyway!
I wouldn't be holding schools up as a reason to abandon common sense.
There's cases spreading on schools and they've only been back a week.
There's no social distancing in corridors, masks aren't mandatory, staff are crossing bubbles, it hasn't been thought through by the government.

Blended learning and properly designed (and resourced) online learning should be done in secondary schools should be the norm.

It’s interesting the idea about moving to long term blended learning and more living at home, like in Germany, say.

Our uni system is much older and some of the most prestigious are based on old college systems. It’s not as easy a ‘solution’ as it sounds. Not everyone has a decent local uni that offers all courses - if online then it won’t matter but then why would some less prestigious places have a reason to continue? Just sell more zoom places to a uni with a famous name.

Covid is quite the disrupter isn’t it!

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54025181?intlink_from_url=www.bbc.co.uk/news/education&link_location=live-reporting-story" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54025181?intlink_from_url=www.bbc.co.uk/news/education&link_location=live-reporting-story

It is the lack of certainty that is difficult for students. If the unviersities could say just about nothing in person unil Jan then students could stay at home and not pay. Saying it might at some point int he future but no date given be in person and even then we are not sure how much is also clarity so again they could stay at homer and only go there once it is back in person. Instead they given rather mealy mouthed communications which try to pretend it will soon be back to normal but give just about no commitment to that at all once you get down to the detail of it.

Staying at home isn't necessarily something students would want to do even if they're locked down. Being in a peer group may help them with studying, general support etc. Vs being at home where they may slip into bad habits etc with mum&dad providing for them and never gaining any independence

obviously this is far from ideal, but accommodation isn't just to be close to lessons.

Exactly @MrKlaw. DC are desperate to leave home. We have a very good relationship and they have been very easy going teens.But they want their own lives now. They want to live away from home, new cities, new people, new experiences. Make their own rules, their own mistakes, without us there to advise or assist or reprove. As they should. The idea of staying at home and doing uni courses online depresses me on their behalf.

They want to live away from home, new cities, new people, new experiences.

Well, quite - are the universities actually insisting that they place themselves under house arrest? If not, there is no reason not to get out and explore their new surroundings, surely? Sit in a cafe with a coffee and a set of earphones to watch a lecture, rather than sit in their bedroom? Find a park to base a small study group in, weather permitting? Just get out there and see where a half hour walk takes them? There is a whole real world place outside their university buildings / halls of residence, which must have held some attraction, when universities were being considered?

yes good points although I am not sure they will be allowed to form small study groups in parks because who they live with is their bubble and therefore people on their course are not. However once the new regulations are published - they are not yet - we can check the rule of 6 and exceptions for school, education work so see if that could include informal education additional groups.

[My son went back yesterday for his 10% online post grad course and it will be interesting to compare the twins - same course but one living at home and the other not. 80 students have already put in a formal complaint that promised printed materials are not now being a provided on their course but that is just specific to that law course.]

..100% not 10%...

Following on from the local lockdown in Birmingham, the University (ies I guess as there are five involved) and the city council are saying carry on... come and move in and be locked down. A lot is riding on a handful of flatmates who may or may not turn up.
I actually think that the universities should feel an increased responsibility to offer real life small group, socially distanced sessions which are only online currently. It's bizarre to travel to accommodation and not meet anyone on your course. If the universities don't facilitate introductions they'll happen anyway, and less safely I bet.

I agree and now I see a group of students on sons' course have made a formal complaint as they were promised written materials and instead now everything is on line (unless you have special needs and a certificate to that effect). When my daughters did the same course everyone was sent almost a suitcase full of law text books, cds, folders and I really don't think everyone can easily work off on line material particularly when cross referencing 6 documents at once.

Anyway I am sure they will get used to what is required once they get into the swing of it - first work shops on line were this week although some had to stop small groups immediately due to low bandwidth and go to bigger groups (my son loves bigger groups as he is less likely to have to speak... irritating boy)