Unis are confirming online lectures will be here to stay in September

At least you won’t have to pretend to be interested in your coursemates


A number of universities are confirming that online lectures will be here to stay in September.

Leeds, Cardiff, and Edinburgh have announced that some form of online learning will continue into the next academic year.

At Liverpool, academics were told that lectures will be “mostly online” in September, reports the Telegraph.

Meanwhile at Nottingham, large lectures will take place online.

Nearly half of Russell Group unis are understood to be planning under the assumption of a 50-person in-person class size limit, with Leeds among them, The Tab can reveal.

A leaked document produced by the University of Bristol, based on discussions between universities, said 11 Russell Group universities were making plans based on the assumption.

Physics students at Leeds have been given a lecture telling them to assume that all lectures larger than 50 people would be online.

However, all those named stressed their plans were not finalised and subject to change.

Despite the return of online teaching, universities were also keen to point out that September would bring more in-person teaching.

“For the majority of students there will be a mix of in-person and digital teaching, but we expect overall there will be more in-person teaching for students than in this current academic year,” students at Edinburgh were told in an email from Vice-Principal Colm Harmon.

A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “We expect that large lectures will continue to be delivered online to ensure our student and staff’s health and safety, which is always our highest priority.”

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