Whats happening with universities this year?

[ssd]

Are they back as normal or is it still online?

Still mostly online as far as I can tell. Dd is starting this year and will be in every other week for 3 hours or something. She hasn't had a whole lot of info through yet.

Ds says he's not heard much yet either

Which uni is it?
Dd is starting Strathclyde uni.

Same one

DS is going to Strathclyde and he says it’s not clear but looks like it’s going to be mixed.

Ds2 is doing face ti face but he's in fourth year and so doesn't have lectures anyway.
Ds1 is at FE college and is going on one full day a week, rest online.

I'm at UofG and we haven't been told yet but consensus is tutorials in person, lectures online.

St A are doing blended tho that seems to vary according to individual depts and staff members. Masks need to be worn in halls. Some social things happening in person.

I have DC1 starting and just got timetable.
It's blended and that in reality means she's in for 2 (possibly going to be 3) labs a week and rest online
So that's about 60/40 split online/in person
So not remotely normal

Anecdotally Scotland seems to much stricter than English unis

And of course students can go to bars, cinemas, nightclubs etc but not have all their teaching in person 🤷‍♀️

My DS is studying law in England so in theory there is no practical element of the course so all teaching could be online.

However, he has been told that teaching will be back to normal with maskless tutorials with no social distancing and group teaching in person of up to 30 with larger group lectures on-line. The universities minister says that teaching and socialising at universities should be more or less back to normal in England.

Why is Scotland so behind?

www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reopening-buildings-and-campuses/higher-education-covid-19-operational-guidance

DS1 Strathclyde, year 4 of 5 and all he knows is that it will be mixed. It CS which in normal times has lectures, tutorials and labs. He travels so is hoping that any contact he does have isn't on different days or one at 9am and one at 4pm same day.

DS2 Aberdeen, year 3 of 4, been told that all lectures will be on line and all tutorials will be in person. He doesn't have labs. In practice I'm not sure if that's more than a couple of hours a week.

First year students generally have the most in terms of lectures and tutorials as they take a bigger breadth of subjects (ime anyway). DS1 had more than 20 hours a week in first year and DS2 about 12-14.

Neither has stepped foot in Uni since early March last year.

Thanks. Ds is yr 3, im wondering how many tutorials he'll have? And whats the difference between a tutorial and a lecture?

@ssd. Lecture is lots of people in big/biggish hall (my guess 50-200 folk?). Tutorial is smaller group (up to 10ish?) in a class. Labs similar numbers i think.

depends on how many classes he has/topics he's chosen. I think mine do 4-6 over the year now, so 2 or 3 a term. Generally have 1 lecture and 1 or 2 tutorial per class I think. So maybe 2 to 3 hours face to face if no labs involved. Dual honours degrees might have more? Friends son doing languages and business so 2 languages plus business classes so has more contact time than other courses.

Thanks. Is the tutorials something they work on as a group?

@ssd

Thanks. Is the tutorials something they work on as a group?

Could be but not necessarily. It's more like say a class at school where they may do group work or discuss elements of the lecture or just a class that furthers knowledge in the subject. I guess it really depends on the topic. DS2 doing politics and IR so I would assume that lectures deal with big themes, sparking ideas etc but are not necessarily that interactive whereas he would be discussing ideas and texts more in tutorials in an interactive way. DS1 is much more technical so they could be doing practical stuff in tutorials where they have support to go over the theories or something. I've never ben to Uni and DS1 tells me nothing so I have to go more by what DS2 happens to spill...

Ds2 doing politics too, similar set up here

Think most are hoping for a lot more on campus but with big lectures (50 plus) online.
But the faffing about with whether it is 1m distancing or not is a headache

I have a DS starting at Strathclyde doing biomedical science too. He has been told that any lectures of 50+ will be online, at least for the first semester (so until Christmas). As many of his lectures will have people studying pharmacy, pharmacology, chemistry etc in them, he is fully expecting those to all be online.

He is hopeful of tutorials and in-person lab time at some point.

It's pretty shit. One of the main reasons for choosing Strathclyde over a similar course further afield was the total mess of last year, committing to paying for pointless accommodation or being locked into flats with a bunch of strangers, Big Brother style.

St Andrews labs were done by video last year and were hopeless. They do need to be hands on so they really should make that happen this year.

DD (Edinburgh) has been lucky this year. Seven out of her 9 contact hours per week are face to face this term. Last year she had 8 hours face to face in total.

DD is starting a masters at Strathy but they haven't confirmed the timetable yet. Is that normal? DD has had timetable and reading lists for weeks.

DD has been told labs and tutorials in person, lectures online (Strathclyde and an engineering course)

Its a real shame that there's not going to be more face to face.Feel particularly sorry for the ones staying at home.