Are your DCs back to face to face lectures?

[Whosaidthattt]

DD at Warwick found out today that all of her lectures will be online and 50% of seminars and tutorials will be too.
I am livid! Schools and colleges are back to normal. Can't believe I'm paying £9k for another year of her sitting in her room!
What's happening where yours are?

Think yourself and your DD lucky that she has the opportunity for a world-class education at a fraction of the cost of many other countries.

You must be having a giraffe!

@Peaseblossum22 it's not all UK though.
Scotland's tuition fees (mainly, but not exclusively, paid by Gov) are much cheaper and more in line with other European nations.

@wooliewoo this is true but only for Scottish students and the bye product is that places for Scottish students are limited and universities are effectively incentivised to take english students .

This is true @Peaseblossum22 however in reality it's really only an issue at Edinburgh and St. Andrews.
And STEM courses are always funded to take more Scottish students than non STEM.

@wooliewoo interesting I didn’t know that about STEM

@Daisysway

I totally agree *@etulosba*...sadly they are all paying the same fees. Is this fair?

There's also the issue of why fees are the same across all subjects when some degrees are a lot cheaper to provide than others such as Physics/engineering that require a lot of expensive equipment/labs etc. The govt expected a range of fees, i.e. different fees to recognise different degrees/different unis, etc., but Unis all charge the same which is against the govt's intent.

Not commenting on fees because universities didn't make that decision, the government did- but as a lecturer - in humanities at another Russell Group university - I am stunned that Warwick is offering biosciences entirely online so far. That seems way out of line with other English universities (I can't comment on Scotland).

We have been teaching basically everything face to face, with no social distancing - just masks. So far cases remain very low, hopefully because students are vaccinated or have had the virus already. I actually feel more at risk from my own children at school. However it is basically impossible to social distance in my classes and one student rgidceeek

Finished too soon! Sorry..

One CEV student was practically hanging out of the window to avoid contact with others. It's so hard to get the balance right...

And at my university (England RG) we are all f2f for anything with under 100 students, including most lectures . You’d think all the students would be over the moon, but the student newspaper has a big spread article full of complaints about us not doing lectures online.

I think, though, it’s tough for CEV students and staff. I have at least 2 friends, both academics, who’ve retired early or resigned (at considerable cost to themselves) because their health was at risk from doing their job with COVID around. It’s their universities’ and their students’ loss. As well as both of them looking at potential old age poverty- well one won’t make old age, sadly but didn’t expect to be housebound until he dies. So it’s all very well to be hung ho about university staff having to put up with getting ill or risking their health, but you won’t persuade me that such attitudes are humane. There needs to be balance in all policies.

Plymouth Marine Biology have all their lectures F2F (barring the one where the lecturer tested positive last week) but they are also recorded and posted online because that makes them accessible to people who cannot access them in person. DD2 is disabled and on a bad day, knowing she has this option gives some reassurance that she won't lose ground. I do think there is merit in a blended approach, but it can't be the be all and end all. Courses with high levels of practical work (Marine Bio is one of those) do demand F2F, otherwise students lose out on vital teaching and experience.

I have at least 2 friends, both academics, who’ve retired early or resigned (at considerable cost to themselves) because their health was at risk from doing their job with COVID around. It’s their universities’ and their students’ loss. As well as both of them looking at potential old age poverty- well one won’t make old age, sadly but didn’t expect to be housebound until he dies. So it’s all very well to be hung ho about university staff having to put up with getting ill or risking their health,

This is sad, but not unique to universities. There are staff in schools, supermarkets, nhs, bus drivers etc who are sadly in the same situation. Covid is not going away now. It is unfortunately now endemic in our society and we will have to live with it.

We've lived with these things before. With TB is was a huge issue - my grandfather spent a year in bed with it when aged 12 and it was endemic for a while here in the UK. Whole industies were set up - schools outdoors, children sleeping out doors, people going to Switzerland for the better air etc etc, people moving from where they lived for better healthier air or whatever else they thought would help.

Apparently a resurgence of TB is likely too so I am glad I paid £400 for my twins to have the BCG when the state stopped giving that one out.

Blended learning would be a positive step on dds course right now... .

UEA, American History, 100% f2f lectures and seminars

DS2 (UEA, History of Art) now says that some of his lectures are in person (as well as the smaller group stuff).

Location-wise, teaching is 'all over the place', apparently; I don't know whether it would be normally. He rather likes Earlham House. But does say they get to spend rather a lot of time in basements...

dd is disappointed that everything has gone fully face to face.
She found the 2 hour lectures being on-line much more accessible and had worked out ways to focus for that length of time that she can't really do in a lecture theatre.

Ds1 at University of Nottingham
1st year
100% lectures online
4 x f2f seminars per week so 4 hours f2f per week

Well, DD2 has Field Week this week, so she's in the great outdoors 4 out of 5 days and in the lab the fifth. First field trip today and despite fibromyalgia she's loving it.

Delighted to hear it @pointythings!

@Delphigirl I'm video chatting with her quite a lot (not because she needs me but bcause she's got loads to tell me!) and one of the things I'm hearing is how incredibly friendly everyone is on the course - staff and lecturers as well as students. Might be one of the things your DS wants to consider (though I would imagine marine biologists would be agreeably bonkers anyway).

Oh that’s so lovely to hear pointy - thank you!

All face to face at ours (NW city)

3rd year at Durham. All face to face.

DS just started 2nd year Philosophy at UEA. All face to face this term. He is over the moon after a whole first year online.

D1 just started 2nd year at Oxford. Everything is f2f apart from one tutorial (tutor out of town at the moment). Last year nearly everything was via zoom, I think she only had a couple of tutorials in person.