The University and College Union (UCU) said today (Wednesday)
that the Prime Minister’s plan to force students to stay in their
university town or city in the event of a future lockdown was
“ridiculously irresponsible”.
At his press conference this afternoon, said that government guidance would include “a clear
request not to send students home in the event of an outbreak so
as to avoid spreading the virus across the country”.
UCU said the Prime Minister should be working to prevent
unnecessary Covid outbreaks, not creating the conditions for
them. The union said universities should move the majority of
teaching online to avoid students having to travel across the
country and risk being locked down in unfamiliar surroundings.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: ‘Even by the government’s
standards, these plans are ridiculously irresponsible. Mixed
messages and contradictory advice might be his stock in trade,
but the Prime Minister cannot in good conscience tell students to
go back to university when he knows more outbreaks are likely and
that would result in them being locked down hundreds of miles
from home.
‘The Prime Minister should be working to prevent unnecessary
Covid outbreaks, not creating the conditions for them. Students
and their parents will be rightly worried about being locked down
in an unfamiliar area, possibly over Christmas.
‘The sensible thing to do is to move most teaching online for
this term and look to reopen campuses more widely only when that
can be done safely. Students need to be released from
accommodation contracts they do not need, and staff must be given
assurances they will not be asked to deliver in person, what can
be done remotely. The health and wellbeing of university staff,
students and the wider community are too important to gamble
with, this is not business as usual.’
Last week UCU
said that universities’ default position should be online
learning to avoid risking a major health crisis. On
Friday the government’s own scientific advisers SAGE
raised concerns about the likelihood of increased cases on
campus. On Monday, health secretary said he was concerned about the reopening of
universities, but suggested that students would be to blame
for any second wave.
