Many students have said they feel unsupported by their universities during the last two academic years.  The statement by the Russell group organisation stating that final year students do not need a safety net has not helped this. The basis for this statement was that universities had already put in sufficient aids and guidelines. So far any student who I have spoken to says that these aids are minimal and that we need more.   I have set out below reasons why I think final year students should be entitled to a safety net.

Many students missed the beginning of the 2nd year due to the strikes and spent the other half of second year online due to COVID-19. Thus, students have only really had one year of in-person teaching, their first year. Further, COVID-19 has affected the quality of the courses: coursework is being marked and returned late, for instance I am still waiting for coursework to be returned to me which was due in on the 10th December.  As a result students are not receiving timely feedback which, in turn, affects the quality of subsequent work to be handed in.  Overseas students are not able to attend lectures in person due to time differences.  This has left students in the dark and without the level of teaching that they would ordinarily receive in person.  As are result they are unsure of how they are doing in their course and not sure how to improve. Everyone was told during their previous university years that you must go to in-person lectures and cannot just rely on recordings of those lectures as you will not do as well. Now that we cannot attend in person this guidance seems to have been forgotten.  Clearly, in light of this we cannot be expected to produce work of the same standard as we would if our courses were running normally.  Virtual teaching cannot provide the same level of education as in person lectures and tutorials.

Secondly, everything is uncertain at the moment and many people are facing personal and family difficulties from having been kept inside for nearly a year (the first lockdown date was March 23rd).  This applies students and it no doubt applies to lecturers and university staff as well (the lack of timely feedback on coursework is but one example of this).  Deteriorating mental health in the UK has increased dramatically and nearly everyone I know has suffered mentally, as a result of COVID-19. This makes it harder to teach and harder to learn.

The final year students last year qualified for a safety net although they had only been in a lockdown for a couple of months when they did their exams and had in-person teaching the majority of that year. Our year has been suffering the effects of staying inside and not socialising for over a year.  This can make students unmotivated and unable work effectively. In these circumstances, students cannot be expected to reproduce the work that they normally would.

I think that there is a unanimous agreement among students that there need to be more measures put in place by the Russell group organisation, and it should not just be left to universities to come up with their own measures. This will only result in inconsistent treatment of students between different universities. There are universities which have given safety nets to this year so I don't understand why we aren't entitled to one?

This petition is not to undermine the Russell group organisation but rather to give  the students input, as many students have said that they have not been able to speak out. Further I want to clarify that I am not criticising lecturers, they too are affected by COVID-19.