I have already bemoaned the educational loss to Biological Sciences, Geology and Geography of currently not being able to put on field courses in these Covid-19-ridden times. The latest fiasco with the fixing of 'A' level scores (always a somewhat weird system in the UK, 'designed' by making guesses about likely performances in examinations to be held later to try to finish up with the optimal number of students) has effectively dumped the problem on the University system. Students have now been told that they can use either the grades predicted by their schools or that calculated by the Ofqual algorithm (whichever is the better). This means that many more students will have 'obtained' the grades to get into their university of choice (I expect that all hell will break out as some may told that they are too late as the places have been filled). To 'help' the 'cap' has been removed from university numbers and these organisations are now being encouraged to be as flexible as possible in admitting candidates. I am sure that they will try do what they can. However, the distancing requirements imposed by the pandemic, may limit how many students you can get into halls and 'digs' as well as making it difficult to accommodate them in lecture theatres and tutorials. Again, the problem will be exacerbated in any Dentistry, Engineering, Medical, Nursing, Science or Veterinary subject, where many of the student assessments are based on practical exercises in laboratories. These are practical subjects (where students acquire necessary skills to be a practitioner) but practicals are both time-consuming and crowded exercises. I suspect that not many Classicists know that!
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