Most institutions will deliver mix of face-to-face and online courses, with social distancing measures in the early planning stages, in a bid to maintain the “full student experience” as much as possible and prevent students from deferring a year.
The universities of Manchester, Bolton and Edinburgh and Nottingham Trent University have already announced that they intend to deliver a hybrid approach from September, while the University of Cambridge has said all lectures will be online-only for the next academic year, but it may “host smaller teaching groups in person”. The University of Exeter said the institution was looking at “a series of potential start dates”, with domestic undergraduates returning to campus in September but international and postgraduate students possibly starting later, perhaps in January. The university is also considering staggered starts for different cohorts or different degree programmes, and added that Exeter was likely to deliver lectures online but teach lab-based classes, seminars and tutorials face-to-face.
The University and College Union has raised concerns about the lack of “consistency” among the announcements and what it deems financially driven decision-making by universities. It seems that an agreed set of principles for universities to follow for the next academic year may be published shortly.
