University students could learn with others ‘in a bubble’

UNIVERSITIES ARE considering making students live in a “bubble” with people on the same courses to limit social mixing when campuses reopen in the autumn.

Students arriving at university for the first time could be faced with virtual freshers’ week events, fewer large-scale lectures and one-way systems across campus in a bid to keep them safe.

A series of proposals for easing out of lockdown safely have been unveiled by university leaders, including using a mix of online and face-to-face classes.

It comes after a poll from the

University and College Union found that 71 per cent of applicants would prefer to delay the start of the academic year if they could get more face-to-face teaching.

Professor Liz Barnes, vicechancellor of Staffordshire University, said her institution was considering grouping students on the same courses in the same accommodation to keep a “bubble”.

Students could also be asked to come in for a day in a smaller assigned group to minimise movement around campus and to reduce the number of social interactions, she added.

Prof Barnes, who is also a member of the Universities UK (UUK) board to co-ordinate the sector’s coronavirus recovery work, said yesterday that other institutions were looking at a similar approach.

She said: “The bubble around accommodation has been discussed across a number of universities, about how best we can bring groups of students together. The more we can keep them in a small group of regular interaction the better in current circumstances.”

UUK has published a set of principles for universities to consider as they emerge from lockdown, including how to encourage social distancing.