Students worried about crowded examination halls

Students worried about crowded examination halls

 

 

Many students are worried about having to take exams, sometimes by the hundreds, just before Christmas. According to the National Students’ Union, not all exams are coronaproof.

 

With the rise of the omikron variant, the unease grows. At the University of Groningen, for instance, almost a thousand students signed a petition in which they called on the university to organise safe physical exams or else to administer them online.

 

Huub Savelkoul, professor of immunology at Wageningen University, thinks students are right to be concerned. He advocates online exams and thinks they should have been prepared much earlier. “If students have been vaccinated, it is now about six months ago,” he tells the Dutch news channel RTL Nieuws. Their antibodies are decreasing and they are not yet eligible for a booster. “If they are infected, they will not have any symptoms at Christmas, but they can pass on the virus to older people who are at greater risk of hospitalisation.” (HOP, HC)