University vice-chancellors have told the government they cannot completely shut down if the coronavirus outbreak worsens because thousands of students would be left with nowhere to go.
The higher education regulator for England, the Office for Students (OfS), wrote to all universities on Monday, requesting ongoing information on the number of confirmed and suspected cases of the virus on campus, as well as details of how institutions are responding to them.
It is understood that any decisions about whether to instruct universities to close would be taken by the Department for Education (DfE). A spokesperson for the OfS said universities should “continue to follow advice from DfE and Public Health England”.
However, vice-chancellors cautioned that the makeup of universities made their complete shutdown impossible.
The World Health Organization is recommending that people take simple precautions to reduce exposure to and transmission of the coronavirus, for which there is no specific cure or vaccine.
The UN agency advises people to:
- Frequently wash their hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or warm water and soap
- Cover their mouth and nose with a flexed elbow or tissue when sneezing or coughing
- Avoid close contact with anyone who has a fever or cough
- Seek early medical help if they have a fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and share their travel history with healthcare providers
- Avoid direct, unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces in contact with animals when visiting live markets in affected areas
- Avoid eating raw or undercooked animal products and exercise care when handling raw meat, milk or animal organs to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods.
Despite a surge in sales of face masks in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, experts are divided over whether they can prevent transmission and infection. There is some evidence to suggest that masks can help prevent hand-to-mouth transmissions, given the large number of times people touch their faces. The consensus appears to be that wearing a mask can limit – but not eliminate – the risks, provided it is used correctly.
Prof Steve West, the vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol, said: “My bottom line back to government has been that they can’t treat universities like big schools because we aren’t. I’ve got 4,500 students living on campus: some of them are care leavers or estranged from their families and many are international students. We can’t just shut down as they would have nowhere to go.”
The vice-chancellor of a university in the elite Russell Group, who asked not to be named, agreed, saying: “We couldn’t fully close. What do you do with thousands of international students who can’t go home?”
The vice-chancellor said their university would provide free accommodation for international students who were stranded, even if the government told them to shut.
UWE has set up an emergency helpline for worried students and parents. West said: “We would operate something like a Christmas shutdown. The things you can shut down you do, such as lectures and sports. But you also have to provide vital support services for the students still here, including security, catering, wellbeing support and emergency phone lines.”
He added that universities may need to mobilise students who are training as nurses, doctors and other health professionals to help bolster voverstretched NHS services. “We need the flexibility to do that, and to support those students,” said West.
Harvard University in the US told students on Tuesday that they must move out of their houses and student residences by no later than Sunday and that all classes would be conducted online after the spring holiday, in an attempt to contain the spread of the infection. No cases have yet been detected at the university.
Oxford University said it would remain open despite a second student testing positive for coronavirus. In a statement it said: “Public Health England has advised the university that the risk to other students and staff is very low and that university and college activities can continue as normal.”
Simon Marginson, a professor of higher education at Oxford, said the volume of people in universities represented a real challenge to containment: “Only transport and inner urban streets clearly exceed the level of people-traffic that we can see in large universities. The end of term cannot come too soon.”
