Thread by @AamerAnwar

As former Rector @UofGlasgow a thread on Universities shambles👇🏽 far too desperate for income from ‘cash cow’ students, exploitative rents, international fees, fill the halls but what were the contingency plans to keep them safe until it was too late? universities-scotland.ac.uk/preventing-spr…

Throughout universities- building occupancy & congestion levels are monitored & one way systems but what is happening in halls (often private) where several hundred students are housed- what about their health & well being? Where is 24/7 infection control as you pack them?

With nearly all classes online, forcing students to matriculate it smacks of treating them as “cashcows’, it is perverse to sign them up to Halls where up to 12 students can share block, telling them to study remotely, not go home whilst mixing in a giant Petri dish 4 #COVID19

Any universities attempting to ban students from returning home should remember their mental health & exceptional circumstances -students can also terminate their leases- under the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No.2) Act 2020 terminate your tenancy or student let with 7 or 28 days

Universities Comms messaging is a disgrace- with no apparent time frame & trying to enforce rules that don’t apply to the rest of scotland whilst threatening them with “Breaches will not be tolerated”- of course they should observe guidelines & laws but get the messaging right

You cannot hold students ‘hostage’, previously much support during lockdown stemmed from consent & guidance, Sensationalist reporting is not helping & Universities should have listened to the safety concerns of @UCUScotland

Many of the accommodation halls are private, for the benefit of offshore millionaires with little concern for #Covid19, universities should be checking their measures for infection control because private offshore landlords certainly don’t give a damn, it cuts into their profit

Students being told not 2go 2pubs or restaurants is guidance, not a ban! but many students work in hospitality to survive, the patronising diatribe against students, thinking this is about getting a pint fails 2recognise how many struggle financially bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…

It’s easy enough to blame students, but many 1st yrs way from home for very 1st time, now being threatened with expulsion, police action as well as fear of infection- whilst being told told at the last minute they can’t go home- mental health support was already at crisis levels

We have had over 6 months of #Lockdown real questions must be asked of Senior University Management as to what the hell they have been doing during #COVID19, what their contingency plans were, as they now to try to crack down on what are in essence their own failures

Where was Mass testing for new arrivals? It’s fine for the universities to panic now but during Freshers Weeks on cusp of 2nd wave large numbers of students were off 2pubs yet we saw little advice other than bland Facebook posts until it was too late