I am whole heartedly in support of students returning to campus as soon as possible. As other posters have said - be angry at the government and ensure you and your DC vote in May to have their voices heard. University staff are under immense pressure, just as many other people have been over this pandemic. They face the prospect of redundancy due to increased costs and potential downturn in student numbers in subsequent years, balancing childcare and working, increased workload and totally unfulfilling jobs now that we can interact with students f2f.
- Refunds on uni accommodation: This would be ideal and many unis have made full or partial refunds. However, some unis are so financially stretched due to COVID (minimal government support, increased costs - they still have to maintain all of their expensive facilities even though no one is using them) that giving refunds may actually force some unis to cease operation. So I'm sure your DC would prefer to lose this money and actually finish their degrees.
- Full return to campus - there are many international students who are not allowed (either because of our travel rules or their own countries) to fly into the UK. Therefore there will have to be blended online and face to face learning until the pandemic is over worldwide. This means next academic year too. This is a huge amount of work for academic staff and is definitely NOT preferred! However, the government should allow students to return and have as much as possible running. It can't be compared to schools and FE returning because many international students will not be able to currently, so online learning in some form will still be happening for the foreseeable future.
- It is ridiculous that students can return to sports facilities and teams but nothing else. Also go on holiday, go to the pub etc. It feels that they have been forgotten about and many university staff are angry about this too
- Running extra sessions during the summer is not viable - just as we wouldn't expect teachers to teach during the summer holidays. University staff use this time to catch up on their research, which generates money for the university and in turn ensures it won't close down! Timetabling rooms for students in universities is an absolute nightmare too, so not as easy as just sticking on extra labs etc.
- Vaccinating students - I hope that there can be a massive drive to do this on campuses at some point, but that's not within the ability of universities to organise currently due to government policy of who is allowed a vaccine and which vaccine they should have.
- Financial compensation to students - complex area due to the way students pay back loans as many won't pay them off, so more like a graduate tax. Universities should absolutely not be responsible for refunding tuition fees, as above - many will simply have to shut down. It is well known in academia that there were several unis in considerable debt pre-COVID. The government has thrown money at so many other places, but not students. Possibly the best way is to reduce the interest charged on these loans or % paid back upon graduation
I know some of these things are hard to accept, the reality is that universities won't be back to normal until the pandemic is over world-wide and that means some online learning is going to be here for a while. Of course, there are better options to the current provision though, but ultimately the decision to allow all students back to campus lies with the government. No doubt some unis could have done better, it is a consumer market so those who are doing the bare minimum now will hopefully see a downturn in students applying in subsequent years. Students should make their voices heard to their student's union or the OFS for universities who they think are handling things particularly badly