Students ‘left in the dark’ for their return to university

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Third-tier students say they have been “left in the dark” in relation to the reopening of universities.

While some universities have given their students a preliminary indication of their hours, most institutions have not clarified how many face-to-face hours students will have on exactly which days, leading to confusion about booking accommodation for the entire year.

Waterford IT announced Thursday that all lectures, tutorials and classes will take place online, and only labs or courses that need to use special equipment will take place on campus.

Meanwhile, UL has said that freshmen will have in-person conferences one week every three weeks, with all other students on campus for conferences one week out of four. There will also be face-to-face teaching for labs and tutorials.

NUIG, UCC, UCD, DCU, Maynooth and Trinity have said that there will be in-person learning for tutorials and labs, combined with some online classes for larger groups.

UCD has said that the schedules will be released on September 7. DCU said that, to the extent possible, students will be scheduled on campus for a reasonable period of time (no less than half a day), to help minimize travel times to campus. “This could mean, for example, that campus activity is concentrated in specific weeks.”

Irish Student Union president Lorna Fitzpatrick says the uncertainty surrounding the academic year is starting to affect students’ mental health because they are concerned about adaptation.

“How often will students be required to be on campus, how much of their learning will take place online? This leads to several problems.

“We have so many students contacting, and parents of new students, asking if they should sign a lease. If the student is only going to be on campus one week a month, or one day a week, is he at his best? interest in signing a full-term lease? “

Fitzpatrick says the difficulty is that each institution makes its own decision, and even within universities, different schools and courses can have different degrees of in-person contact hours.

“Some have more information than others, but at this point we are at the end of August and that people do not have any kind of clarity about the new academic year leaves them in a very difficult situation.”

He added that schools should make it easier for the club and the activities of the society to move forward, whether in person and socially distant or virtually. She says these provide a source of support for students and should not be canceled entirely.

Ellen O’Donoghue, who is in her final year of Arts with Journalism at NUI Galway, says the students know very little about her return to college, but they have been promised more information by the end of August.

“I have panic days where I feel like I need housing, then I think how can I find housing when I don’t know if I’ll be on campus yet.

Ellen is from Donegal and has a job there, but is considering traveling to Galway when her course resumes.

If I have to go to Galway twice a week, it’s € 70 by bus, not including an Airbnb. It will almost be cheaper for me to get a house.

“But you don’t know if the rental price will go up or down, and if I need it.”

Two of Ellen’s friends have been paying rent since June, but they continued to live at home, just to have a room available.

She wants the university to be more forthcoming with specific information about schedules. “We are left in the dark.”

Ellen adds that if part of her course will be conducted online, her internet at home is not strong enough to complete college work.

In a statement, NUIG said, “All programs taught will be delivered in a hybrid of online and on-campus classes.”

“Regardless of the size of the class, we will have learning on campus … through tutorials, seminars, labs.”

NUIG also said that large-scale conferences will be held online and will not be scheduled.



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