Universities across the UK will reportedly be plunged into a two-week lockdown before Christmas to allow students to return home to their families.
The lockdown will take place from December 8 to December 22 and will involve classes being taught online only.
The plans are said to be in their ‘early stages’, reports the Guardian.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson previously said ‘plans are being put in place to allow students home safely for Christmas’ as many hundreds of students across the country have been forced to self-isolate due to soaring coronavirus cases.
Dr Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and Colleges Union, said the plans were ‘unworkable and chaotic’.
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In a series of tweets, she said: ‘Ministers want to place English universities into lockdown from 8-22 Dec, with students remaining on campus & teaching carried out online before returning home.
‘This perverse obsession with Christmas is dangerous. Government must focus on the here & now!
‘Universities are not boarding schools! Not everyone lives on campus. This “plan” is unworkable and chaotic. These measures are highly undesirable but will also be impossible to deliver or oversee.
‘How on earth does the Government think they can propose doing this to students?!’
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson previously suggested students may be required to self-isolate at the end of the current university term in order to safely return home to be with their families at Christmas.
Speaking last month in the Commons, Mr Williamson told MPs it was ‘essential’ that measures were put in place to ensure students could be with their loved ones during the festive period while ‘minimising the risk of transmission’ of Covid-19.
‘Where there are specific circumstances that warrant it, there may be a requirement for some students to self-isolate at the end of term and we will be working with the sector to ensure this will be possible, including ending in-person learning if that is deemed to be necessary,’ he said.
The Department for Education said details on the return home would be set out ‘shortly’.
A spokesperson added: ‘All students will be able to go home at Christmas if they so choose.
‘However, if students are travelling home, we must ensure they do so in a way which minimises the risks of spreading the virus, and the date when universities must stop in-person teaching will be an important part of this.’
The university coronavirus crisis continues as more educational institutions have been put on lockdown in recent days.
Around 300 students at Bristol University have been self-isolating in halls this week after 40 positive cases, and almost 500 students tested positive at the University of Sheffield since the beginning of the month.
About 25 used coronavirus swab tests were accidentally handed out in Birmingham to students yesterday.
And London’s surging coronavirus infection numbers are apparently being skewed upwards by the inclusion of positive test results of students studying in other cities across the country.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/15/students-to-be-put-into-two-week-lockdown-so-they-can-go-home-for-christmas-13425123/