LONDON – British universities should scrap plans to reopen next month to prevent traveling students from exacerbating the country’s coronavirus epidemic, the union said, demanding that courses be taught online.
The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson has come under fire for his efforts to restart education, especially after a line of school examination results and a failed attempt to get all students back into their classrooms earlier this year.
Johnson has been calling on the British to return to normalcy after the closure of the coronavirus, urging workers to return to office to help the economy recover from 20% of the contract during April-June.
But the University and College Union (UCU) said it was too early to send students back to universities, warning that they would not be blamed if the COVID-19 charges increased.
“Moving more than a million students across the country is a disaster and a danger to leaving universities unprepared as second-hand care facilities,” UCU Secretary-General Jo Grady said in a statement.
Several universities say they are ready to open next month after weeks of preparation and some students say they have already spent money on things like housing in preparation for the new season.