Guidance released on travelling home for the holidays
The Scottish and Welsh governments have set out their plans for making sure students can travel home safely for Christmas, after the UK government released guidance for students in England.
In Scotland, students are being asked to “voluntarily reduce their social mixing for two weeks before going home” and are being encouraged to take a Covid-19 test in early December. In Wales, students have been told to travel home no later than 9 December and to get an asymptomatic Covid-19 test around 24 hours before they leave university.
The plans came on the same day that the Westminster government published its guidance for universities and students in England, which revealed there would be a “student travel window” between 3 and 9 December. Under the plans, published on 11 November, universities in different regions will offer staggered departure dates to try to ease pressure on the transport system.
Universities UK-wide will move all teaching online by 9 December to allow students to continue their studies from home until the end of term. A rapid Covid-19 testing programme will be rolled out at universities across the UK to make sure students do not have the virus before they return to their families.
All four nations of the UK coordinated on the Christmas plans. Richard Lochhead, Scotland’s minister for further and higher education, said testing would play “a limited role” in allowing students to return home safely. “My message to students is: ‘Thank you for all your efforts, and please keep doing all you can to keep yourself and others safe.’ I have no doubt the majority of students will want to act responsibly and will follow the measures that will be set out,” he said.
In Wales, education minister Kirsty Williams said universities should finish in-person teaching by 8 December and that they had agreed to “develop a phased exit from campus and university towns” to avoid a rush of students using public transport.
Both the Scottish and Welsh governments said they would publish further guidance on the plan to get students home for Christmas shortly.
Commenting on the guidance, Universities Scotland director Alastair Sim welcomed the measures on mass testing and said it was “important that students living away from their families have the chance to reconnect at Christmas, and this needs to be carefully managed to reduce risk”.
Universities Wales chair Julie Lydon said institutions would “continue to work with the Welsh government on how new testing technology can be used to support students to return home”.
But Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union, said the UK government’s guidance on the return home for Christmas was “riddled with holes”. The plans “raise as many questions as they answer”, she said.