Cambridge University moves lectures online until summer 2021

[ARTPOPNick 3,486]

44 minutes ago, Florin said:

Because the chances of a young, healthy student to die from this is very small. People have more or similar chances to die in a car accident. 

Yeah I do understand that, but you could still carry the virus and spread it to older people.. + the lecturer as well..

I mean, it's not ideal to have online classes, but I do understand why they are doing this.. Also telecommuting will be a thing that will happen more often in the future.. now everything is still changing, so not all solutions are optimal yet, but give it some time, 4 months ago we were still living our "old" life

[Mirrion Rizzons 12,769]

Just now, lodylody said:

Oh goodness... Maybe it'd be better to defer your place and try to get a job or something to start saving  I can't imagine getting in that much debt for an online course  I'm coming out the other end of my degree in the next month, and even I feel shortchanged by this situation  

  To my knowledge Cambridge University did not have these types of services. You had to turn up physically, and lectures wouldn't even be recorded officially for viewing afterwards. Quite outdated, really. I hope that when they get back to normal teaching eventually, they do modernise to the extent that many other universities already have, in terms of lecture recordings/streaming.

 They did it since March/April as well, they just now announced the extension into the next academic year  

I think Cambridge, Durham, oxford etc are just so old that they’re very traditional. They have banquets and those weird events and it’s all very formal proper hogwarts. I hope other uni’s don’t follow this because that’s awful 

yeah I’m considering getting a job at Waitrose or something for this year! But then I hate working and want to put it off for as long as possible 

also I’ve been in a groupchat with my flat mates for September since March and we zoom call every week, so I’m already attached to them  

[ARTPOPNick 3,486]

1 hour ago, paurok89 said:

the problem is for medicine, vet med students. They have loads of practical stuff. As a vet student myself I can say that online classes are a disaster!

Yep! But I think the best solution will be: if it is not necesarry (like for all the students that don't have any practical stuff), stay at home and have online classes so rooms can be optimized for practical lessons..

They should try to find a balance: limit contact as much as possible, but if it really is necessary (which is in your case), they should adapt classrooms so the classes can be as safe as possible

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 7,023]

7 minutes ago, TEANUS said:

For anyone to cancel two semesters at once, I don’t think they care that much. Our university is literally looking at ANY and EVERY option or any safety measures possible before choosing to close again for a semester at a time. They want us to get back to normality while it seems like others are comfortable moving towards a 100% online dystopian bullshit with ease  

The biggest thing that gets me is how apparently the governments and scientists do know what we need to do to reopen safely (contact tracing, more testing, etc. —> if there’s no vaccine yet) and they can’t figure ANY of that out in the next four or so months?? Or even before spring semesters?? How can they not rally together enough testing in MONTHS? What are they going to do in that time span if not find resolutions? Find other things to close down? 

How are you gonna make judgement like that without having all the information? If they didn't care that much they would just reopen. Having online classes likely increases costs as their physical presence is still there and they aren't able to fill room and board. That's maintenance that still has to happen. There's a lot of paperwork to do with contracts or any kind of layoffs they may have to do. They have to pay for online infrastructure and any other licenses required to run the classes online. This is a university that's doing its own research on the virus and probably are more educated on the issue than most universities.  

 

Another issue is the testing. There's a lot more to testing than just taking the sample. They have to have the supplies, and when the virus became an issue TWO companies in the entire WORLD made some of the supplies necessary to test. And there's a lot more components to it than that. Any other supply shortage could create a bottleneck. On top of that comes the required safe transportation and whatever resources that requires if there is not an inhouse lab at the testing site. Then the test actually needs to be tested in the lab, where there might be more supply (or labor) shortages. It needs to be sent back. And then labor needs to be organized to inform those people. It's not just an infinite pool of resources at factories putting together one component.

[lodylody 1,790]

2 minutes ago, Mirrion Rizzons said:

I think Cambridge, Durham, oxford etc are just so old that they’re very traditional. They have banquets and those weird events and it’s all very formal proper hogwarts. I hope other uni’s don’t follow this because that’s awful 

yeah I’m considering getting a job at Waitrose or something for this year! But then I hate working and want to put it off for as long as possible 

also I’ve been in a groupchat with my flat mates for September since March and we zoom call every week, so I’m already attached to them  

Yeah, I go to Cambridge and my partner went to Durham. Formals are actually loads of fun, just an excuse to get drunk with your friends over some good food (very affordable, also!). Very old-fashioned though, definitely  

Yeah I don't think I've ever had a job and I'm most definitely not ready for one  Starting a part-time masters in September, hopefully, but I'll have to get a job on the side  

Did you already meet your offer/take a gap year? Or are you the year group most screwed over by this who've had their A Levels cancelled?  

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

1 hour ago, HermioneT said:

Because it will exclude those with non sufficient internet and technical devices. 

If you can afford to go to Cambridge, you can afford good broadband 

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 7,023]

3 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

If you can afford to go to Cambridge, you can afford good broadband 

And what about the people with money who live in a rural area because their parents like to live away from people?

[TEANUS 16,217]

10 minutes ago, xoxo Craig said:

If you can afford to go to Cambridge, you can afford good broadband 

What a narrow statement. How bout rural areas? Or cases where the kid was smart and/ or talented enough to get into the college on his/ her own merits (aka scholarships, grants, etc) but parents can’t afford/ can’t get internet at home? 

Unfortunately even in America internet still isn’t 100% everywhere

[Giorno Giovanna 3,178]

1 hour ago, lodylody said:

Oh goodness... Maybe it'd be better to defer your place and try to get a job or something to start saving  I can't imagine getting in that much debt for an online course  I'm coming out the other end of my degree in the next month, and even I feel shortchanged by this situation  

  To my knowledge Cambridge University did not have these types of services. You had to turn up physically, and lectures wouldn't even be recorded officially for viewing afterwards. Quite outdated, really. I hope that when they get back to normal teaching eventually, they do modernise to the extent that many other universities already have, in terms of lecture recordings/streaming.

 They did it since March/April as well, they just now announced the extension into the next academic year  

ohh I see, then I obviously did a bad job at reading the article. my mistake

[Giorno Giovanna 3,178]

1 hour ago, TEANUS said:

For anyone to cancel two semesters at once, I don’t think they care that much. Our university is literally looking at ANY and EVERY option or any safety measures possible before choosing to close again for a semester at a time. They want us to get back to normality while it seems like others are comfortable moving towards a 100% online dystopian bullshit with ease  

The biggest thing that gets me is how apparently the governments and scientists do know what we need to do to reopen safely (contact tracing, more testing, etc. —> if there’s no vaccine yet) and they can’t figure ANY of that out in the next four or so months?? Or even before spring semesters?? How can they not rally together enough testing in MONTHS? What are they going to do in that time span if not find resolutions? Find other things to close down? 

I am no expert in this field, and I assume you aren't either. 

But I guess testing is also dependant on a time scale, like some tests need to be done and watched over a course of several weeks/months. This way you can notice long term effects of certain medicine or vaccines better. 

Surely testing more is better than testing less, but it takes time. 

[Maleficent 6]

as an option? sure. cambridge is an intl school and students may not want to travel from countries where their cases are higher e.g. 

but, don’t make it mandatory. daily cases are dropping. new zealand and aus have nearly eradicated the virus. it can be contained with testing and contact tracing. 

[Maleficent 6]

1 hour ago, TEANUS said:

For anyone to cancel two semesters at once, I don’t think they care that much. Our university is literally looking at ANY and EVERY option or any safety measures possible before choosing to close again for a semester at a time. They want us to get back to normality while it seems like others are comfortable moving towards a 100% online dystopian bullshit with ease  

The biggest thing that gets me is how apparently the governments and scientists do know what we need to do to reopen safely (contact tracing, more testing, etc. —> if there’s no vaccine yet) and they can’t figure ANY of that out in the next four or so months?? Or even before spring semesters?? How can they not rally together enough testing in MONTHS? What are they going to do in that time span if not find resolutions? Find other things to close down? 

bc i assure u this isn’t about science. it’s about making the safest financial choice with minimal work. they save so much time and money by just throwing in the gloves and making it online. no logistics, no extra planning, no worry of liability. 

[lodylody 1,790]

1 hour ago, xoxo Craig said:

If you can afford to go to Cambridge, you can afford good broadband 

Oh come on now Craig, you live in the UK, you know how the university system works here. This is the most narrow-minded, insulting and ignorant comment I've seen on this forum in a very long time.

In case you don't happen to know though, and it's a genuine lack of knowledge:

1. You get student loans that are repaid in the form of taxes. Maintenance loans allow someone from any socioeconomic class to attend the university (including myself, from a working class family).

2. (You probably don't know this.) You aren't allowed to get a part-time job at Cambridge University, so you are restricted to whatever your family can afford and what you are paid. I am therefore on an income of only £13,500 per year (after the Cambridge bursary).

3. Whilst the university helps out with a lot of costs, they don't help out with everything.

I'm very disappointed by this comment, especially by someone who lives in the UK and is likely to understand how the university system works.

[HEARTSTOP 3,160]

6 hours ago, justhislife said:

 

In the U.K. student debt isn't as bad though, is it? I'm not educated on it, but wouldn't people just be able to take a gap year? I just don't think it would be very responsible for them to run classes in person, and I feel like it'd be hard getting faculty to agree with it. I'm also not sure about classroom sizes but another problem might be close proximity.

Student debt isn't really a thing in Europe (generally). Education is mostly funded by taxes, and then students have to pay "symbolic" fees to have access to the services. But even these "symbolic" fees are a considerable amount when they aren't providing you with the service you payed for.

Imagine paying for Netflix but you can only access it on your Nokia 3310. Now imagine that Netflix costs a couple (or many) thousand dollars/pounds/euros a year. Now imagine you are learning to be a doctor (or anything else besides maybe literature) through that. It sucks, right?

[Runway 27,876]

online courses are lame