The academic year has started at universities across the UK but far from the promised freshers’ experience, new students are finding themselves forced to isolate and attend classes online
When the coronavirus outbreak first struck Britain in March, universities scrambled to respond. They moved lectures online, sent students home and cancelled exams. But now at the start of a new academic year and despite a summer to plan, there are chaotic scenes springing up on campuses around the country.
The Guardian’s Scotland correspondent Libby Brooks tells Anushka Asthana that Scottish universities were first to return and have already seen multiple clusters of cases with thousands of students, many away from home for the first time, now forced to isolate. Jordan Hunter is in his 3rd year at the University of Glasgow and editor of its student paper. He tells Anushka that anger levels are rising at both university administrators and the government.
