Shutting down universities and moving all teaching online will hit London’s poorest students the hardest, the Government was warned today.
Deborah Johnston, Pro Vice Chancellor of London South Bank University (LSBU), said trying to control the coronavirus by closing universities and locking down halls of residence is more complicated in the capital.
Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and the University of Sheffield have suspended face-to-face teaching after Covid outbreaks . Professor Johnston said closing whole institutions would increase the gap between rich and poor students, as happened when schools were shut.
About 40 per cent of London undergraduates live at home — about double the national figure.
A survey of LSBU students found that one third struggled to study online when the university shut in lockdown.
Professor Johnston said: “We typically think of digitally disadvantaged people who don’t have the equipment or the connectivity, but there are also people who don’t have the study space.
“If you are a mature student living with your family, or a younger student at home with parents, you might not have a quiet space for study.” She also warned that moving courses completely online will hit practical degrees like nursing.
“Our trainee nurses are working in London’s hospitals and contributing to the Covid fight before graduating. To get them to that stage they do need those practical and technical sessions that we can only do face to face,” Professor Johnston said.
Claire Callender, Professor of Higher Education at Birkbeck and UCL Institute of Education, said is easier to organise highly localised lockdowns at campus-based universities, rather than in London where buildings are dispersed throughout the city.