UK Universities Face Fines If They Fail to Resume Face-to-Face Teaching: Minister

Edinburgh University students protest against the false promise of "hybrid learning" to new and returning students in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Oct. 24, 2020. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

British universities could face financial penalties if they fail to return to face-to-face teaching, a government minister has warned.

As all CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus restrictions have been lifted in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and most such curbs have been scrapped in Wales, the government has advised universities to stop online learning and return to face-to-face lectures and lessons, but some universities have failed to do so.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Universities Minister Michelle Donelan said it is “really wrong” for some universities to refuse to return to pre-pandemic levels of in-person learning despite the complete reopening of other sectors of society.

She said, “Students and lecturers will be going to the pub, going out for meals, they’ll be going to parties, going to weddings, probably concerts, so it doesn’t actually make sense that they can’t then be in a lecture theatre.”

“I’ve not heard a reasonable rationale for why we would want students to be on a second track to the rest of the population. In fact, I think it is really wrong,” she added.

The minister said universities that have failed to return to pre-pandemic levels of face-to-face teaching could “potentially be fined or could even lose the ability to access money from the student loan system.”

Donelan said in January that there had been “tens of thousands” of refunds issued to students by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator during the pandemic and students should “absolutely” apply for refunds if they are unsatisfied with their education.

“We’ve got to get back to pre-pandemic life. Risk assessments can’t be used as an excuse not to host face-to-face teaching,” she told The Daily Telegraph at the time.

Also in January, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said universities would have to tell students exactly how much face-to-face teaching they will get, before they start their degrees.

He told The Times of London that there was no longer any excuse for teaching remotely and that online lectures should be scrapped.

In March, the Office for Students (OfS), the UK’s higher education watchdog, launched a review of “blended-learning”—a combination of in-person and online delivery of the courses.

OfS said the review came amid concerns that the poor quality of the online experience for some students during the CCP virus pandemic has undermined the positive potential of the blended-learning model.

The watchdog said that many universities had continued to deliver some elements of their courses online despite the fact there were no longer legal restrictions preventing them from fully returning to in-person teaching.

Lily Zhou contributed to this report.