Cambridge has become the first university in Britain to cancel all face-to-face lectures for the 2020-21 academic year due to the deadly coronavirus, after 800 years of welcoming students to its cloeches, quadrangles and classrooms.
It may be the last, as the virus threatens the foundations of traditional student experience, as well as funding for universities around the world.
Cambridge said Tuesday that all lectures will be available and distributed online until the summer of 2021. He said it would be possible to hold tutorials and other tutorials in small groups – an important part of the university’s program – when the new academic year begins in October, provided that public distribution is not followed.
The university, which has about 12,000 graduate students, said in a statement that “the decision has now been taken to make preparatory arrangements, but in the meantime, it will not be reviewed in the event of a change in legal advice on coronavirus.”
The epidemic has revitalized the lives of students. Cambridge sent students home and moved all of their teaching online in March as the UK began locking in, with tests being done remotely. In Britain and around the world, graduation ceremonies and spring balls are distributed. California State University announced last week that it would hold a fall semester and keep classes closed, becoming the first major American college to cancel fall talks.
British universities warn that they will face a financial crisis if students decide they do not want to pay tuition fees – currently at 9,250 pounds ($ 11,300) a year in England – to get a college education experience with personal study, no extra curricular clubs and socializing. Some students who should be starting this fall may be year-round in hopes that things will go back then. Nicola Dandridge, head of the Office of Student Affairs – independent director of higher education in England – said this week that universities needed to come clean about what kind of experience students might expect before June, when Graduates decide to take over college campuses in the fall term.
