Guidance on post-holiday return may not be ready by Christmas

Peer urges caution about promising guidance on students' return to campuses

A Conservative peer has said that any hope of guidance being issued by the end of the current term regarding students’ return to university post-Christmas will “depend on developments” in the pandemic.

Stephen Parkinson, life peer and government whip, told the House of Lords that universities and students “will want a bit of certainty about the resumption of education in January”, during a debate on 16 November. But he warned that disruption caused by Covid-19 could scupper the government’s plans to publish guidance on the January return to universities.