‘Vulnerable students are on their own’

Lecture halls are allowed to be full to capacity once again and face masks will no longer be mandatory on the campus with effect from 25 February. Nadia Buiter, Master’s student in Social, Health and Organisational Psychology at Utrecht University, did not watch the press conference at which the announcement was made.

High-risk groups
“It really upsets me that at such moments little consideration is given to high-risk groups in society”, she explains. She is unhappy that the restrictions are being eased in education. “What this actually says to vulnerable students is ‘you’re on your own!’”

It is not an option for Buiter to sit in a full lecture hall in which people are not wearing face masks. She has several chronic illnesses that could be exacerbated by a COVID-19 infection. As well as being a Master’s student she is involved in the campaign group #GeenDorHout, which calls for more attention to be paid to high-risk groups.

She has been taking part in online classes for the last two years, but that has not always gone smoothly. There were certain subjects that she was able to follow at home only if a fellow-student allowed her to watch via his/her laptop. “Even though the university has injected a lot of money into facilitating hybrid learning, it doesn’t always give the lecturers good instructions”, she says.

“Such mass exclusion of chronically ill students is at odds with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”, Buiter concludes. She stresses that vulnerable students are not alone in being adversely affected by the relaxations: students who live with people in high-risk groups are affected too. “That’s a whole lot of people.” The least we can do is to keep on using face masks, she feels.

Face masks
The Dutch National Students’ Association (ISO) is getting “a lot of signals” from students who are worried about the relaxations. “But the vast majority of students really want face-to-face teaching. That’s the predominant view”, board member Gijsbert van Elven emphasises.

ISO is pleased that from tomorrow there is no more restriction on the number of people attending lectures and that face masks will soon no longer be mandatory during lectures. “Students don’t like wearing face masks for long periods and it makes knowledge transfer more difficult”, says Van Elven.

But why is it that face masks have to be worn in public transport, allowing vulnerable people to continue travelling, yet that will shortly no longer be the case in education? This doesn’t surprise Van Elven. “Educational institutions are able to offer vulnerable students a tailor-made solution. And they need to do so”, he says.

Hybrid teaching could be the solution, Van Elven suggests, or arrangements could be made with fellow students to wear a face mask in particular working groups.

In any case, wearing face masks is still advised, he says. “I can’t say that all students ought to abide by that, but they certainly need to show understanding for other people’s situation.”

Ventilation
The General Union of Education (AOb) has mixed feelings about the relaxations. “I think that everyone is rather nervous about it”, says spokesperson Simone van Geest.

Something the union is “very worried” about is ventilation in higher education. “You only have to walk into a higher education institution to realise that the ventilation isn’t satisfactory.” A hotline (in Dutch) for reporting ventilation issues has now been opened.

New normal
The AOb expects a lot of sick leave among lecturers because of the large number of infections. It is not yet “business as usual”, Van Geest concludes. But Nadia Buiter would prefer not to get back to that situation. “The focus is very much on getting back to ‘normal’, but a lot of people were already excluded at that time. As an example, by no means all university buildings are wheelchair-friendly”, she explains.

Permanent hybrid teaching could provide a solution, in the opinion of ISO. “For some students even a train journey is a challenge and online teaching was a genuine solution for them”, observes Van Elven. But it is by no means certain that hybrid teaching is here to stay. “It’s going to be a tricky issue”, he predicts. 

HOP, Josefine van Enk
Translation: Taalcentrum-VU