Philip Cunliffe

The recent U-turn on masks in schools will likely undermine teaching, not only in schools but also further afield. It will embolden growing calls for university teaching to go fully online when the academic year restarts next month. Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, is consistently urging the government and university leaders to curb face-to-face teaching on campuses as much as possible. Her demands follow elite universities in the US such as Harvard and Yale which have already committed to online teaching. Many British academics seem to be against reopening campuses over the next few weeks, preferring that universities go fully online while claiming that in-person teaching risks the health of staff.

As a new generation of school leavers now consider their options on the basis of predicted A-levels and Highers, what kind of education can they expect to receive on locked-down campuses with remote teaching governed by social distancing? The sorry truth is that Britain’s universities were in a mess long before coronavirus. Rampant grade inflation, over-dependence on wealthy foreign students (as exposed by the pandemic), vice-chancellors paid more than the Prime Minister and glitzy new corporate-style campuses – all while staff wages and working conditions were screwed down. Universities tossed aside their claims to being centres of independent learning when university leaders and academics piled en masse into anti-Brexit campaigning.