How likely is a normal Uni experience?

[StormcloakNord]

Mature student here. I'm not far off completing my HNC (Scotland) and have an offer of a place doing Biomed Science 2nd year this year.

I'm just wondering what the likelihood is of a totally normal return come September?

I've absolutely hated online learning. I've done far worse in my assessments and work than usual and I'm just not coping well with it. I'll be gutted if online teaching is still happening come Sept!

Personally, I think it's going to be mostly online again which is an absolute travesty. At my son's Uni there are entire blocks that have remained closed to both staff and students with most lecturers not setting foot on campus all year. Rather than try to do social distancing, they just gave up and didn't do it at all, neither for staff nor students. In Summer, social distancing is likely to still be in force, so Unis will just carry on as they are into the new term.

2021 - not at all
2022 - maybe

I’m currently studying at uni in Scotland. We’ve been told they are preparing two timetables for September. One if coronavirus carries on improving as it is where there will be on campus classes and a bit of online learning. The second one if coronavirus does get worse and it’ll be back to online learning. Here’s hoping for the former!

Universities already announced in September they’d close all year

Until zero covid, I fear they won’t open as normal at all.

It’s because it’s public, civil servants, they won’t lose their jobs or anything

So they will deem it unsafe for staff until covid is gone (or they are forced by government to step up, but that is entirely unlikely with the weak and spineless education secretary)

I feel gutted for DS who is hoping to start Uni this year, but who even knows if it’s happening

They may need to be forced into it by the state. I am hoping my sons' course in September will be 100% back to normal and face to face.

I think it depends how this autumn/winter goes - no-one knows yet.

The academics I know are desperate to get back to face to face teaching as soon as they feel safe.

Unis are essentially private businesses these days, their employees certainly aren't civil servants.

Having invested in technology for remote learning, it's possible things will never fully return to "normal" - you can get a lot more people in a lecture if it's run online. And lots of people who work for unis have lost their jobs or part of their income - although most senior staff will have very secure contracts.

For biomed, you obviously want lab time etc, though. It's very hard to predict what will happen over the summer. Personally, if you have an offer of a place, I would accept it, and try to defer in the summer of it becomes clear things won't be in person in September.

@Xenia not under Gavin Williamson, he’s terrified of unions and is only in the job as BJ owed him a favour . He has no vision, does not even care about education, only about his own career

@whatswithtodaytoday

I think it depends how this autumn/winter goes - no-one knows yet.

The academics I know are desperate to get back to face to face teaching as soon as they feel safe.

So never then!

Will they feel "safe" to go shopping, go on holiday, go to pubs/restaurants this Summer? If so, then they need to get back to normal workwise too.

Covid will never disappear, some people will always catch it and sadly, some will die, in years to come.

All adults will have been offered the first vaccine dose by July and most will have had their second doses by the time Uni teaching starts again at the start of October.

Unless new variants appear which aren't covered by the vaccine and we have rising infection, hospitalisation and death rates over Summer, then Unis and staff need to get back to normal.

I'm not massively optimistic for this autumn/ winter tbh, I think there is likely to be another wave, but nobody knows for sure.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl

Unis are essentially private businesses these days, their employees certainly aren't civil servants.

Having invested in technology for remote learning, it's possible things will never fully return to "normal" - you can get a lot more people in a lecture if it's run online. And lots of people who work for unis have lost their jobs or part of their income - although most senior staff will have very secure contracts.

For biomed, you obviously want lab time etc, though. It's very hard to predict what will happen over the summer. Personally, if you have an offer of a place, I would accept it, and try to defer in the summer of it becomes clear things won't be in person in September.

"If it becomes clear things won't be in person"

But Unis didn't tell the truth last Summer, so why should they tell the truth this Summer. Some Unis were promising "blended learning" last Summer, right up to the deadline day for contracting to courses and accommodation, but then changing their websites almost overnight to water down the face to face and then in reality, there was little, if any, face to face in October. There were no Govt announcements, restrictions, etc announced in August/September to cause that watering down of face to face teaching. A cynical person could say that Unis knew there'd be little F2F and conned students into contracting! What's to stop them conning students again this Summer?

@nancywhitehead

I'm not massively optimistic for this autumn/ winter tbh, I think there is likely to be another wave, but nobody knows for sure.

Even without another wave, I'm sceptical whether Unis and their staff will be on campus if they don't need to be, and doing the minimum of contact for Lab based courses that need F2F.

I work in a uni. Certainly plans for September 2021 are looking more positive than this year has been (government road map and restrictions permitting). There will still be some social distancing, but much more on campus activity has been planned than was possible this year. There won't be any large lectures (which will all be online), but there will be a lot more small group taught activity than there has been this year. These will also be accessible via video link to students who can't for whatever reason travel to campus. There will be much more social activities and use of university facilities (gyms, bars etc) than has been possible this year. Obviously this all hinges on the government road map following through and the vaccination programme succeeding in containing covid, but it's looking more positive. We are also planning two timetables with everything online if restrictions are reimbursed, but it's much easier to pivot from planned f2f to online than the other way around. The university teaching day has also been lengthened to try to timetable more teaching activity on campus whilst complying with social distancing measures.

Oh we are definitely not civil servants and our jobs are definitely not automatically safe!

@Badbadbunny I am assuming they'll be happy to go back once they're vaccinated and we have an idea of how the varients are affecting things. Restrictions are quite possible next winter I think, and they'll want to avoid getting everyone in just to go home again (and spread the virus) a month into term.

There's a world of difference between going into a shop or having a meal outside, and sitting in a small room with a bunch of young adults.

@whatswithtodaytoday I sit in small rooms with young adults Monday to Friday - now. Still unclear why students change from year 13 to 1st year quite so much in their susceptibility to COVID. V strange.

@StormcloakNord my DD is at a Scottish university doing a course which involves labs. Back in the autumn term she had 4 labs in total, everything else online. That was referred to as blended! That had been the plan for spring term too except we went into lockdown.

If you ask any universities at the moment they will probably say they are planning for blended as no- one knows what the situation will be. Just be very aware though of what blended actually means, it's certainly nothing like 50/50!

I work in HE. We are planning for part online delivery, full online delivery, face to face with social distancing - we’re modeling timetables for all eventualities because we just don’t know. But no-one is planning a normal, non socially distanced first term for October.

If I was a student about to go to Uni I’d defer if I wanted the full experience and not at least partly online. It seems unlikely we’ll be completely back to “normal” for the 21/22 year and we are braced for a disrupted first term.

I really hope I’m back at Uni this year. Doing Y2 of Microbiology with NO lab time (when I should have had 6-10 hours per week) has been HELL.

I’m a mature student, 34, 3DC. It has broken me.

Sorry guys I didn't realise there was so many replies!

Thanks though - I wish I had the time to defer but I'm only getting older and want to get this finished so I can start establishing a career in this field.

I'm just so sick of online learning. @MyGorramShip I'm the same as you it's broken me. Husband has been at home, DD at home and trying to get peace to focus is next to impossible.

I will absolutely detest another academic year of this

I think we are all being conned by both GW, and the Uni's lying to us all about how blended it is, when really it's absolutely minimal.
Such a shame. How depressing.

[quote mumsneedwine]@whatswithtodaytoday I sit in small rooms with young adults Monday to Friday - now. Still unclear why students change from year 13 to 1st year quite so much in their susceptibility to COVID. V strange.[/quote]
And those young adults will all have been vaccinated by October, as will the staff. Where's the problem?