Mark Dolan: University professors use Covid as an excuse to scale back their services - remember, you're paying customers

Top universities have refused to bring back full face-to-face teaching in the autumn, despite government advice, that they can lift all Covid restrictions.

Many of the Russell Group of top universities, will continue to hold many classes and lectures online, and some will require students to socially distance, wear masks on campus and be double jabbed to attend concerts, discos and other college events.

What a slap in the face to a generation of young people, who have needlessly suffered financially, emotionally and academically over the last 17 months.

Students have been imprisoned in their rooms, prevented from gathering in groups, learning together and socialising. In one particularly distressing case in November of last year, the University of Manchester literally built a fence around a halls of residence, from which the students could not escape. After an outcry, an apology was made and the fence was removed.

Even pre-pandemic, university was becoming a less attractive prospect for young people, with sky high tuition fees and the cost of books, other resources and of course accommodation. Many students, now hold down one or even two jobs, on top of their academic commitments, just to make ends meet.

Even then, there’s every chance they’ll leave university with a degree that offers no guarantee of future employment, especially with our now wrecked post-pandemic economy. But they will also be saddled with thousands of pounds worth of debt, into the bargain.

Given that they faced scant physical threat from the virus, in my view it's appalling that students should have had their college experience curtailed, in any way whatsoever. Often miles away from older vulnerable relatives, they should have been allowed to work hard, play hard and enjoy to the full, what many consider, to be the best years of your life.

So students have had a lonely year and a half, in which they’ve sat in their dormitories, doubtless battling the mental health issues, brought about by social isolation, and glaring into a screen, by way of education. The cruel irony, is that this diminished academic service, wasn’t reflected in a reduction of tuition fees. Of course not.

When young people sign up for higher education and those enormous bills, they have a right to the full university experience, face-to-face tutorials and physical lectures. They need to collaborate with each other, exchange ideas, share notes and maybe just occasionally, exchange knowing glances in the lecture hall.

This impersonal cut price service is not just unacceptable, it’s justified too. And it’s a race to the bottom. Learning will be worse, degrees will be worse, standards will be worse and therefore ultimately life chances, will be worse. With the vulnerable vaccinated and young people not statistically seriously threatened by the virus, there is no reason why September cannot be business as usual for universities and colleges across the land.

Charging people top dollar for what amounts to an open University course, will make young people wonder whether it's worth the trouble. Or the eye watering cost. Of course it might not work for subjects like medicine, but for the vast majority of softer university subjects, exclusively online courses could be quicker, more practical and come at a fraction of the price.

These dusty well-paid professors have used the pandemic to scale back their service. I would say to any young people watching, before committing to thousands of pounds worth of debt, and three years of your life, remember that you are paying customers and your best option might be to shop around.