SCOTLAND’S Universities Minister has admitted that no decision has yet been made whether all students will return to campuses in January – and learners will be forced to wait weeks before being told if they are “packing up their things for good” before Christmas.
The Scottish Government has drawn up a plan to allow all students who want to return home for the festive break to do so – with a staggered end to the term and asymptomatic testing for all learnings to be put in place along with all parts of the UK.
But Universities Minister Richard Lochhead told Holyrood’s Education Committee that no decision has been taken by the Scottish Government yet as to whether all students will return to campuses after the Christmas break.
Mr Lochhead added that a "staggered return is one of the options" being considered but ministers are “looking at various options”. But he warned that it will be “a week or two” before a plan for the new term is made public.
Labour MSP Daniel Johnson warned Mr Lochhead that “the end of term for some students is less than 10 days away” - adding that without a plan, some may not know whether they are “picking up their things for good or not” when they return home for Christmas.
Mr Johnson asked whether learning could remain offline for some students who “do not require labs or other physical resources”.
The minister confirmed that “minds are turning to after new year and what that might look like" but no decision has been made as to whether all students will return to campuses.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Johnson said: “It is completely unacceptable that days from the end of term, not only is the Higher Education Minister unable to tell students 'how' they will return, he can't tell them 'if' they will return.
“Despite the failings in September which led to students having to self-isolate in cramped accommodation unsuitable for quarantine, the Scottish Government has no plan to avoid the same mistakes. The minister should have been planning for this since the early autumn, yet it is mid-November and he is clearly continuing to make it up as it goes along.
Richard Lochhead
“Bluntly, students do not know if they should be packing up their things for just Christmas, or for good – the minister should get a grip of this or he should be packing up himself.”
Earlier, Scottish Greens education spokesperson, Ross Greer, asked Mr Lochhead what was being done to ensure there is not a repeat of the start of term in September when swathes of students were forced to self-isolate in halls of residence.
Mr Lochhead, who also confirmed “travel restrictions” put in place by the Scottish Government will not act as a barrier to students returning – said the campus outbreaks in September were “regrettable”. But he suggested that the situation has vastly improved, insisting that “less than 1,000 students are self isoalting across Scotland’s campuses”.
He added: “We will look at the role of testing, we will look at how they arrive, when they arrive.
“I cannot exactly predict what January will be like.”
Mr Lochhead said he hoped any mass testing when students return will be done on a four-nations basis.
He added that “no-one has taken any decision yet as to what that role will be” but stressed the UK is “just about to have our first experiment” when students returning home for Christmas are tested.
Mr Lochhead said it would “make sense to see how this goes” before a decision for testing in January is taken.
Conservative MSP, Jamie Halcro Johnston, warned that many students will be concerned and “not sure whether that testing regime will be in place when they return”.
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