Covid: Call for clarity on opening up universities

Universities are calling for greater clarity from the Scottish government on arrangements for in-person teaching for the next academic year.

The sector said it needs more detail to help timetable the education of more than 250,000 students from September.

Universities Scotland said the return of small group in-person teaching, lab and field work can be done safely.

The Scottish government said it was hopeful that the student experience in the autumn would look more normal.

The vast majority of university students have undertaken their learning online over the past year as a 2m physical distancing rule has ruled out most in-person teaching.

Universities Scotland said it was concerned that "a tipping point" had been reached in terms of the negative impact home learning was having on student wellbeing.

The body representing the country's universities surveyed 552 students and found 73% felt the restrictions on in-person learning had had a "strong or slightly negative" impact on them feeling anxious.

Alastair Sim, director of Universities Scotland, said: "University students have shown tremendous resilience in spite of all the disruptions to their education and wider way of life. But we're concerned that we're reaching a tipping point in regard to student wellbeing, and risk to progression unless we can move ahead to a more normal student learning experience in the early autumn.

"Students need clarity that they can expect a step-change in access to safe in-person teaching.

"It's not a case of simply throwing open the shutters. Universities have to timetable the education of over 250,000 students and hundreds#, if not thousands, of different degree programme configurations and then set up classrooms and labs according to whatever distancing is required. It's a gargantuan operation."

Many university applicants have already accepted offers to study from September but do not know how much in-teaching they can expect next year.

Despite being fully vaccinated, Wiktoria Wawrowska has just started a period of self isolation after returning to Aberdeen from her native Poland.

But then spending time on her own has been a familiar theme to the international relations student's experience of Scotland so far.

Wiktoria started her course at Aberdeen University in September where she was in halls of residence and initially had some in-person teaching but that changed as the pandemic worsened.

She said: "Most of my flatmates and friends did not come back for the second semester, so it was all done remotely and that was very difficult.

"I got a routine, I would go to the library pretty much every day and get everything done but a lot of people I know have not found themselves comfortable with the way we were being taught."

Wiktoria said she has coped with the way her course is being taught but traveling to and from Poland has been "very difficult and stressful".

She added: "I managed to get a feel for what it is like to study at a university in Scotland but it's definitely been my work that I put into it."

Asked if she would leave Scotland if the restrictions continue, she said: "It's something I would consider, I don't want to do that - I moved here to start a new life and get a better education but it's something a lot of people who moved to Scotland are thinking about."

Prof Sally Mapstone, principal of the University of St Andrews, told BBC Scotland: "Students and universities really need as much certainty from government as is possible and they need it soon.

"It does seem, I have to say, a bit paradoxical that if you're a student you can go to the pub with your mates and sit a metre apart but if you're at university you can't be in a class and be less than two metres apart.

"And for many universities in the course of the last year that has meant that at any one time frequently as few as 10% of students could have in-person tuition."

There was controversy over coronavirus cases in halls of residence around the country when students arrived at university in September.

Hundreds of students tested positive for the virus at the start of the term, and thousands had to self-isolate in halls.

Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: "The Scottish government remains grateful to staff and students for their continued patience, understanding and support as we progress towards greater normality.

"The extent of vaccine roll-out and the expected impact on transmission rates mean that we are hopeful that the student experience in the autumn will look more normal, although there will still need to be measures in place that help to prevent transmission."

The SNP minister said it was the Scottish government's intention to "enable in-person provision to the extent consistent with the safety of staff and students, in line with Scotland's overall response to Covid-19".