The return to campus is finally here and after a painful few months of planning for the worst, an untimely second peak of Covid-19 means the worst fears of university managers, staff, students (and anxious parents) might be coming to pass.

Join us for a Wonkhe @ Home special, following up our event in May on the New Normal, Jim Dickinson marks the new academic year reviewing how reopening campuses is going, thinks through the local and national practical issues, tracking and tracing the big and small political implications of it all, and asks what might be coming round the corner for your gold command working groups to start thinking about.

We’ll ask how is the start of term going? We’ll hear early reports from socially distanced teaching and social activities from around the UK from students, students’ unions and staff. Local attempts at testing regimes, and the latest in Covid campus fashion. Are students following university rules and government guidelines? What happens to students confined to student accommodation in local or national lockdowns? Is the government about to remember about a sector it largely seemed to forget about for much of this year? What happens on Christmas Day?

Who’s it for?

  • Leaders, managers, heads of department – from comms to planning, to estates, to IT and everything in between.
  • Academics wondering what on earth is going on.
  • Anyone else interested in how UK universities will need to change in the months and years ahead.

Note – delegates to The Secret Life of Students 2020 will have already seen a similar version of this session.

Speakers

  • Jim Dickinson

    Associate Editor, Wonkhe

    Jim is an Associate Editor at Wonkhe and takes a particular interest in the student experience, university governance, and regulation – and leads our work with students’ unions. His career background is in support for student leadership. He has held senior roles at the National Union of Students – where he led on SU development, … Continued

  • Debbie McVitty

    Editor, Wonkhe

    Debbie McVitty, Editor, Wonkhe

  • Mark Leach

    Founder & Editor in Chief, Wonkhe and former Labour adviser

    Mark Leach is the founder, Editor in Chief and CEO of Wonkhe. Mark worked in policy, politics and public affairs in and around UK higher education and founded Wonkhe in 2011 while working as a jobbing policy wonk in the sector. The first part of his career took him to the National Union of Students, … Continued