Northumbria University confirms 770 Covid-19 cases as 88 other universities face virus outbreaks

Northumbria University is hit by a surge in coronavirus cases as hundreds of students contract the virus, but only one in 10 of those who have tested positive display Covid symptoms.

Northumbria University (source: Flickr)

Just days after Covid havoc hit the University of Glasgow, students across dozens of Britain’s universities have been required to self-isolate.

The University of Northumbria appears to have replaced Scotland's second-oldest university as the focal point of the country's Covid campus chaos, but while 770 students have tested positive, just 78 are reported to have experienced coronavirus symptoms.

The spike in cases has, however, prompted lecturers at Northumbria to be the first in the country to call for a ballot on industrial action over the requirement to give students their limited face-to-face teaching. 

The University and College Union (UCU) Northern official, Iain Owens, has warned Newcastle University, who have not yet started in-person teaching, to: "learn the lesson from Northumbria. Do not start face-to-face teaching."

The UCU asserts that moving to an online model of learning could have "prevented" Covid outbreaks across university towns and cities.

The Manchester Evening News has since revealed that the council has decided that, in response to Covid-19 cases soaring both of the city’s main universities, the University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University, will be required to suspend all in-person teaching until at least October 30.

But moves towards remote teaching are already being challenged by students. 

The student-led Refund Us Now campaign is demanding that students are reimbursed for 15 per cent of this year's £9,250 tuition fee. This would be in line with the groups claim that online teaching is 15 per cent less effective than attending lessons on campus.

The Vice-Chancellor of Edinburgh University, Professor Peter Mathieson has rejected such demands. 

Professor Mathieson, who is paid £410,000 per year, said: "We're not planning to make tuition fee refunds because we believe that the quality of tuition we can provide, especially if we are able to provide a mixture of face-to-face and online tuition, is still very high."

Instead, universities in lockdown, including Glasgow and Manchester Metropolitan, have offered students rent rebates and food vouchers as a form of compensation for the current difficulties facing those living in student accommodation.

It is believed that one of the reasons why university towns and cities are experiencing an uptick in Covid-19 cases is because of students socialising in Freshers' Week.

One student in Newcastle appeared to affirm these concerns when he told the Times that: "We all got it, obviously we didn't know and went to loads of parties."

This comes after the police started dishing out fines for students caught breaching the government’s rule of six, as well as social distancing infringements and hosting house parties.

Earlier in September, a 19-year-old student at the University of Nottingham was fined £10,000 for ignoring warnings to shut down his 50-person party in Lenton, the city's most popular area for student housing.

Since then, students at other universities have also received fines. Just last week, two students at Coventry University were fined £200 after videos of 200 people crammed into their student accommodation circulated on social media.

However, the Metro has revealed that some students do not see themselves as the cause of the outbreak. One student levied the blame at her university's failure to clamp down on campus-based parties. 

Another questioned how politicians expected students to follow the guidelines when they see MPs like the SNP's Margaret Ferrier travelling 800 miles on a train from London to Glasgow despite testing positive for Covid-19. 

The University of Nottingham and Sheffield University are also beginning to experience a new wave of Covid-19 cases. 

An online tracker states that 474 students at Sheffield University are isolating after testing positive with Covid-19. But the Daily Mail has added that the university has not placed any student halls of residence into lockdown.

It has been reported by BBC News that an additional 425 students in Nottingham have tested positive with coronavirus. However, the university added that the figures would be higher than other universities because Nottingham is running its own asymptomatic testing programme.

The 330 students living in Nottingham’s Derby Hall accommodation block have described their confinement to campus accommodation as “like a prison” - with some students fleeing despite fearing fines and others receiving delayed and at some times the wrong food parcels.

Joe Watson, a final year environmental sciences student at the University of Nottingham, was forced to self-isolate within 24 hours of his arrival at university and later tested positive for Covid-19. 

He told Pi Media that while students “have little fear” for the virus their “presence in face-to-face seminars and sport is fading, we are dropping like flies”.

But Joe Watson added that: “most students are following the rules as much as we can, despite what the media represent, but what must be understood is that young people have a uniquely strong desire to mingle when compared to other age groups.”

Nonetheless, according to Unicovid, a website run by academics to track the spread of coronavirus, universities across the capital are not yet experiencing as profound a surge in Covid-19 cases. 

On October 5, Queen Mary University experienced 55 active cases among students in Mile End, and Kings' College, London had already confirmed four of their students had tested positive the previous day. 

Today, Pi Media has reported that there have been positive coronavirus tests results across three of UCL’s halls of residence. The accommodation blocks that have registered Covid-19 cases include: John Adams, Langton Close and St Pancras Way. 

However, from September 28, UCL has offered 1,000 tests per day for students and staff experiencing symptoms of Covid-19 in a bid to protect the university from the resurgent virus.