Anger at ‘vaccine passports by stealth’ at universities

FRESHERS have been given wristbands to signal whether they are vaccinated against Covid amid anger at emerging “two-tier” university campuses.

Students arriving this week at the University of Bath get a different-coloured wristband on club nights if they can prove in advance they are double-jabbed or have Covid immunity. Covid passports are required for nightclub or arena events in Bath students’ union, but those who can show only a negative lateral flow test enter through a different queue.

Parents have expressed alarm at “vaccine passports by stealth” as millions of students return for the first freshers’ week in two years, despite the Government ditching the certificates for venues in England.

At Sheffield University, students must present a Covid pass to enter freshers events or union nights out, with double-jabbed students and those with negative tests offered separate wristbands to jump queues. Meanwhile, Cambridge University and two Oxford colleges have asked students to disclose their Covid vaccination status to staff.

“We are worried that some universities appear to have implemented what amounts to a vaccine passport via stealth,” Arabella Skinner, the director of the parents group Usforthem, said.

“The idea of making students display their private medical information in such a public way is unacceptable. This echoes examples of discrimination we have seen in schools through the pandemic and raises concerns of a two-tier system for students to access education.”

At Cambridge, Prof Graham Virgo, the senior pro-vice-chancellor for education, has emailed all students asking for their vaccination status in a survey to help “assess risk in different contexts” and “plan outbreak control measures”.

“The higher the rate of vaccination, the less onerous the control measures for everyone,” he wrote.

Lincoln College and St Edmund Hall at Oxford have asked students to state whether they are vaccinated to help plan mitigations around face coverings and visitor numbers.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has previously said organisations need “compelling reasons” to check Covid status, as this is part of private health data.

♦ Head teachers have been targeted with fake Covid vaccine letters designed to deter students from taking the jab.

The letters, which contained a “consent checklist”, were sent to head teachers from an email address purporting to be from the NHS asking for them to be distributed to parents.

It is understood the letters were sent to a number of schools and in some cases forwarded to parents before they were discovered to be a hoax.