Corona Virus: How Are We Doing?

[nickyboy]

Or maybe it was part of a plan ? Do you honestly think they had no idea this was going to be the outcome? I think this was the plan all along for students in halls. Quarantine the lot of them once they got an out break. Keep them there rather than mixing with families and other households .

Dunno about that. I suspect the thinking went along the lines of "If we don't get the Freshers into halls then, with online learning only we are going to potentially lose the accomodation income"
I suspect they will just let it rip through. The issue is how to manage the return to families in mid December

 

[kynikos]

Back into local measures here. So pretty much a return to where we were six months ago; utterly predictable and demonstrably a failure of leadership and forward planning.

Hospital cases rising so it seems the 'you need to see a cardiologist within two weeks' recommendation from my A&E admission in February and still unfulfilled won't be happening any time soon.

To quote my (Tory) MP, caught in an unguarded moment, 'We're f****d'.

 

[stowie]

Dunno about that. I suspect the thinking went along the lines of "If we don't get the Freshers into halls then, with online learning only we are going to potentially lose the accomodation income"
I suspect they will just let it rip through. The issue is how to manage the return to families in mid December

With online learning only, students may start to wonder why they are paying such a lot of money for their tuition.

 

[tom73]

With online learning only, students may start to wonder why they are paying such a lot of money for their tuition.

Equally some may start to wonder why they got told to move in when much of the learning is on line away.

 

[lane]

As my son says - Netflix streaming service £5.99 a month - university streaming service £9,000 a year. I think they already do wonder.....

 

[fossyant]

It's ripped through two halls at my Uni. I'm glad we've been asked to carry on working from home, as my building is smack in the middle of all the buggy students.

 

[stowie]

As my son says - Netflix streaming service £5.99 a month - university streaming service £9,000 a year. I think they already do wonder.....

I wonder if the introduction of tuition fees have fundamentally changed the way students view university. Perception of a service can differ between one paid for directly and one paid for indirectly. Plus the UK universities don't seem to have been particularly swift on the adoption of online services to reach larger audiences. The US universities seem to have embraced this far more. Possibly where UK universities viewed a threat, those US universities saw an opportunity to reach (and possibly market / sell services) to a much wider audience.

I understand the big differences between online and direct teaching methods. But online qualifications are becoming more accepted in certain industries - will COVID accelerate this acceptance of online education as a serious and valid way of expanding education?

 

[tom73]

I wonder if the introduction of tuition fees have fundamentally changed the way students view university. Perception of a service can differ between one paid for directly and one paid for indirectly. Plus the UK universities don't seem to have been particularly swift on the adoption of online services to reach larger audiences. The US universities seem to have embraced this far more. Possibly where UK universities viewed a threat, those US universities saw an opportunity to reach (and possibly market / sell services) to a much wider audience.

I understand the big differences between online and direct teaching methods. But online qualifications are becoming more accepted in certain industries - will COVID accelerate this acceptance of online education as a serious and valid way of expanding education?

More to do with outdated academic snobbery around it. Distance learning is nothing new the UK leads the world and has done for just over 50 years via the Open University teaching maybe a bit different but the academic standards are not in fact they are higher in some areas.
Never had an issue with my OU degree being questioned and god help anyone who tried. I along with the other 2M other alumni will tell anyone who did just what they can do.

 

[lane]

My son has just started his A Levels this term. He has had blended teaching for the first couple of weeks partly in class and partly on line. He said the online lessons are just as good.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

Edinburgh figures are through the roof now, a seven day rate of 84 per 100,000 and still rising. But it’s impossible to know how much of this is representative of the community at large and how much is students, hopefully confined in their halls. The figures are meaningless without this distinction.

 

[oldwheels]

More to do with outdated academic snobbery around it. Distance learning is nothing new the UK leads the world and has done for just over 50 years via the Open University teaching maybe a bit different but the academic standards are not in fact they are higher in some areas.
Never had an issue with my OU degree being questioned and god help anyone who tried. I along with the other 2M other alumni will tell anyone who did just what they can do.

One of my sons did an OU degree. It took quite a lot of perseverance when combined with work and 2 small children. He got there in the end tho'.

 

[fossyant]

Edinburgh figures are through the roof now, a seven day rate of 84 per 100,000 and still rising. But it’s impossible to know how much of this is representative of the community at large and how much is students, hopefully confined in their halls. The figures are meaningless without this distinction.

Manchester has ripped through 234 per 100,000 - it's the students.

 

[tom73]

One of my sons did an OU degree. It took quite a lot of perseverance when combined with work and 2 small children. He got there in the end tho'.

Tell me about it both me and Mrs 73 are graduates at one point I was doing it together with my teaching one. I must have been mad at the time Mrs73 waited 7 years to graduate so we could have a joint one. We are both now onto our masters. Good on him it’s hard work but bet he learned more about himself along the way for going it.

 

[winjim]

Tell me about it both me and Mrs 73 are graduates at one point I was doing it together with my teaching one. I must have been mad at the time Mrs73 waited 7 years to graduate so we could have a joint one. We are both now onto our masters. Good on him it’s hard work but bet he learned more about himself along the way for going it.

Unfortunately the OU got walloped by the fees, same as all the universities, which meant they had to fundamentally alter the structure of their degrees. No longer can you just dip your toe in here and there, but rather you have to sign up for a full named degree before you start. It seems it's less of an option for busy housewives and the like as it used to be, and more of an alternative to higher fee charging traditional universities, which I think is a shame.

winjim Cert Math (Open), BSc(Hons) Molec Sci (Open)

 

[tom73]

Unfortunately the OU got walloped by the fees, same as all the universities, which meant they had to fundamentally alter the structure of their degrees. No longer can you just dip your toe in here and there, but rather you have to sign up for a full named degree before you start. It seems it's less of an option for busy housewives and the like as it used to be, and more of an alternative to higher fee charging traditional universities, which I think is a shame.

winjim Cert Math (Open), BSc(Hons) Molec Sci (Open)

Sadly yes it’s ironic that maggie saved it from the chop in the 70’s and years later a conservative government did all it could to kill it off. The pathways are less flexible but you can still move around a bit on the right ones They have been active in finding other ways for learning they are now pioneering in work based apprenticeships.