University students may have to live in “social bubbles”

University students may have to live in halls of residence with others on their course and keep within physically distanced social bubbles when campuses reopen in September.

As UK universities look for ways to accommodate the next academic year, one popular idea among many universities is to create social bubbles to limit the contact students have with one another, which could mean a virtual freshers week and online lectures. 

It has been suggested by the BBC that students in their first year might have to live with students on their course, and could only be allowed to study and socialise with the same eight students, at a distance.

Students may also only be allowed to mix with students in the same year group as them, which has caused many students who were planning on beginning university in September to reconsider. 

Roughly three-quarters of these prospective students have said that they would prefer to delay the academic year in hope of being allowed more social contact and face-to-face teaching, according to a University and College Union (UCU) poll of 516 applicants.

Vice-chancellor of Brunel University, Julia Buckingham, said: “Students want to have a university experience that is as close as possible to the one they were expecting when they filled their application forms in the autumn.

Students want to have a university experience that is as close as possible to the one they were expecting when they filled their application forms in the autumn

– Julia Buckingham

“We will deliver in-person, teaching and learning wherever possible accompanied by online lectures and digitally base materials when required.”

Whilst universities are promising that “blended” teaching with possible face-to-face teaching in small groups and online lectures will offer the same quality of education, it has also been made clear that the social side of university may not be quite back to normal by September. 

Shearer West, the University of Nottingham’s vice-chancellor said that freshers week might not be “all singing, all dancing” due to social distancing measures. 

Fears also remain over the financial losses that universities could experience as a result of students deferring their offers and international students not being able to travel to the UK. 

There have also been suggestions that the academic year could be postponed to increase the possibility of greater student interactions and traditional teaching methods. 

However, all this does remain conditional on the development of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

It remains possible that either a vaccine or treatment is found, or that cases dramatically fall before September.