Furious students have demanded that rent for university accommodation be axed until access to campuses and face-to-face teaching are restored. Signs of rapidly growing anger come after ministers announced that lectures and classes would move online for most until at least the end of February. The move was in response to fears over a new, more transmissible strain of Covid-19. But it has also sparked concerns that individuals could be left liable to pay for accommodate they cannot use. Now the Union of Scottish Student Tenants Unions (USSTU) is launching a campaign aimed at ensuring higher education institutions and ministers cancel rent for those in university accommodation while campus access is restricted.
Students are likely to find it easier to secure a spot at Scottish universities this year, with an expansion of places that could ease youth unemployment and hand a financial lifeline to higher
Students arrive on Scottish campuses as uncertainty swirls around universities and Covid-19 scotsman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scotsman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Willie Rennie has called on the Scottish Government to ensure university campuses are closed in line with schools THE SCOTTISH Government has been told to delay the return of university students in line with the decision to close schools until the beginning of February. On Monday, Nicola Sturgeon put mainland Scotland into a new lockdown in an attempt to try and suppress the spread of the new more transmissible strain of Covid-19. The First Minister also announced that all schools and nurseries will remain closed until at least February 1, although schooling will be made available for children of key workers and those who are vulnerable.
Covid recovery fund demand as deprived Scots hit by widening inequalities in access to higher education A RECOVERY fund is now needed as part of radical action to help combat the inequalities and even discrimination that has been exposed and exacerbated in people s access to higher education. Scotland s fair access tsar says universities should consider adjusting minimum entry requirements further as he described a triple whammy of hits to deprived communities. Pete Scott, the commissioner for fair access says an increase in the number of funded places for Scottish students, which was made to accommodate higher-than-expected Higher and Advanced Higher grades this year, should be made permanent, to avoid the risk of opportunities for disadvantage applicants being squeezed .