University in UK fuels debate on vaccinations

Students who haven’t been inoculated won’t be allowed to live on campus

A British university’s ban on students living on campus if they cannot prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 has drawn a mixed reaction.

While some argue it is a reasonable measure to contain infections, others contend the ban constitutes a compulsory vaccination policy and therefore should not be supported.

Hartpury University and Hartpury College in Gloucester have become the first in the United Kingdom to ban unvaccinated students from living on campus, The Telegraph reported.

Hartpury says on its website that “in order to benefit from the most effective protection against COVID-19, it is a mandatory requirement that all eligible students in onsite residential accommodation will engage in the COVID-19 vaccination programme and have both doses of the vaccine when made available to them”.

“It is not Hartpury’s intention to make vaccination a requirement for study with us, and thus we are not restricting access for any students to be educated,” the university said.

Fan Chung, a professor of respiratory medicine at Imperial College London and consultant physician at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This measure taken by Hartpury University would be entirely reasonable, as this would decrease the risk for having outbreaks on campus under the current COVID situation in the UK.”

A large number of COVID-19 outbreaks were reported in university residence halls during the autumn term last year, and this fueled the second wave of COVID-19 across the UK.

People age 18 and older in the UK have been eligible for COVID-19 vaccines since mid-June, and from Aug 23, vaccines have also been made available to people ages 16 and 17. The government is encouraging more teens to be inoculated so that they can have some protection before or when returning to college.

Professor Chung conceded that vaccine requirements for university students would be “discriminatory for those who do not wish to be vaccinated”, but added that getting the vaccine will benefit everyone on campus.

He suggested that one way to make such policies less discriminatory would be to require unvaccinated students to get weekly tests for COVID-19 to ensure that they could be immediately isolated if they tested positive.

Chung believes that more higher education institutions are likely to adopt similar policies. “We all need to get back to some normality within this new world of COVID-19. Normality means losing some form of freedom, and that could be regained by vaccination,” he said.

While many experts agree that proof-of-vaccine policies are here to stay and are a good tool for protection against the virus, they are also concerned that vaccine mandates would infringe upon civil liberties.

Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading, said, “While I am fully supportive of vaccination, I am not in favor of compulsory vaccination, which in essence is what this is.

“No other vaccine in the UK is compulsory,” he added. “My view is that students should find a supportive and positive message regarding vaccination, but not an enforced situation.”

Jones said he thinks “any enforcement policy is counterproductive in the end”. He believes the risk is not to students directly, but to vulnerable groups, and that if quarantine is followed and university staff members are vaccinated, the risk can be minimized.

“I think vaccine passports are hard to control, an obvious target for fraud and (a way to) fingerpoint at those not vaccinated,” he said.

Andrew Howells, assistant director for external affairs at Universities UK International, said Hartpury’s move is “a decision taken by an individual university, but is not indicative of the UK-wide or whole-sector approach”.

However, he added, “Universities are taking every opportunity to support and amplify the message that students should get vaccinated without delay.”

The government said it currently has no plan to require a COVID-19 vaccination pass for access to learning in higher education institutions. However, it said, universities are autonomous and able to determine their own arrangements to keep students and staff as safe as

possible.