PhDs (Piled Higher and Deeper)?

The Covid-19 pandemic has had very disturbing consequences for many people. An area that has been relatively little considered until now, however, is the plight of UK doctoral students. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a current public body supplying support grants, for the 3 years of study, of about 22,000 students (about 25% of the UK total) from an annual budget of circa £400m. That body has just announced, that the student researchers will not be given extra time or funding to complete their higher degrees (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/15/phd-students-fearful-after-funding-body-ukri-curbs-extensions). It may well have been possible for some students, to carry on working on the material for their dissertation whilst in lockdown but this would have been impossible (or at least very difficult for others). A PhD candidate (and their supervisors?) are generally judged on the body of work presented and the timeliness of submission. Any PhDs concerned with with looking at seasonal phenomena (such as in Ecology) will have been greatly disrupted. Other students may well, have found it difficult (or impossible), to access specialist equipment and/or technical support over the time of the pandemic (some laboratories have remained open whereas others closed for extended periods). The timeliness aspect of submission aspect must also be challenging for all as arranging traditional viva voce meetings with appropriate external examiners from other universities will be very problematic. I must also add to the mix, the observation that some PhD students are mature people with families, where the grant is a major source of income. UKRI urges students to talk to their supervisors about methods of completing work within the specified time frame. This is a good piece of advice but there might not be solutions. Are we going to have a body of sub-standard PhDs that have only been accepted because to the Covid-19 disturbance? Things can get very competitive after graduating. I suspect that many of the Covid-19 cohort would be at a disadvantage compared to people graduating earlier or later. I can understand UKRI not wanting to have to deal with deciding whether extra time and/or funding is appropriate in particular cases. I think, however, that in fairness, they should do this. I appreciate that it will be costly (perhaps taking money from the next tranche of grants) and time-consuming for the UKRI staff. Students, however, took the grants on the understanding that they would get 3 years of funding for 3 years of uninterrupted work on a dissertation. It is not their fault that this didn't materialise. Are the descriptions of the new grants going to contain a health warning about the possible effects of pandemics?