Universities call off lectures

UNIVERSITIES yesterday announced plans to stop face-to-face lectures and seminars and move teaching online in response to the coronavirus crisis.

Despite government advice that they should remain open unless instructed otherwise, four institutions – including Durham University and the London School of Economics – announced that they were cutting back contact with students.

Meanwhile, medical students at the University of Cambridge will now not carry out final clinical examinations as they would have come into contact with hundreds of patients and NHS staff.

The moves came as the University of Oxford said a further three students had tested positive for coronavirus, bringing the total there to five, along with one at Bristol University who had returned to the city from abroad. The 19,000 students at Durham were yesterday told that ‘classroom teaching of all forms will cease’ for the final week of term starting on Monday, with ‘alternative modes of teaching’ adopted instead.

It said it was ‘working hard across the university community to prepare for the possible spread of the virus’, it said, adding that students could return home today if they wished.

At LSE all 11,000 students will see teaching along with taught exams and assessments moved online for the rest of the academic year from March 23. It described the move as ‘a precaution and to provide clarity and reassurance’, stressing that the campus and its facilities would remain open.