Just before Easter, some students at Nottingham Trent University were amongst the few to be allowed back onto campus for face-to-face teaching. Only a few students were allowed back on to campus from select courses. For the select courses allowed back on campus before easter, they had to be practical or practice-based elements to resume face-to-face teaching from March 8 2021.
A course that could be back on the NTU campus was Journalism. Broadcast Journalism student Zoe Bruce, 22, gave us her views on what it was really like to be back on campus.
Zoe said: “It felt super weird to be back on campus, it was so strange to go from this freedom to restrictions within the newsroom.
“Even using the library is so restricted, the procedures in place just aren’t great at the moment.
“Campus is almost eerily quiet, I think people are almost scared to risk it.”
Similar to the start of term, procedures have been put in place across all the NTU campuses, so they are Covid-friendly for all students and staff. Zoe explains how there is sanitiser everywhere, and face masks remain mandatory on campus. To help students know where to go, there are also arrows placed all over the floors to show the correct side to walk on.
Zoe adds: “Then there’s students a company have employed situated throughout main buildings to restrict people.
“I think this is ridiculous!”
“I received that job advert as well, and it’s basically recruiting students to do the dirty work the uni rather wouldn’t?
“It’s crazy!”
As students begin to come back after the Easter holidays, there will be more students able to study once again with face-to-face teaching on campus. However, some will remain online for the rest of the term.
When asked what she thinks face to face teaching is going to be like if all students are able to come back, Zoe said: “So for me, I am back face to face, and it’s so strange because we’re limited to our desks and cleaning wherever we go.
“We can’t book out equipment spontaneously anymore it all has to be pre-organised.
“I can see the pros of it, but there’s lots of cons as well, it’s difficult to be a student during these times.”
When students return at Easter, a lot more courses will be able to begin to teach face to face again on campus. This means a lot more students will return to their accommodations after not being there since the national lockdown was announced back in December 2020. For some, however, they have decided to stay at home for the rest of the academic year as there is only one term left for the year. These students look to return to campus next academic year for 2021/22.
Returning to campus will not be the only bit of normality the students will return to, as many hospitality venues will look to open up back in the city. On April 12, these types of venues will allow people to sit outside, and on May 17, people will once again be allowed inside pubs and restaurants. Therefore, for the Nottingham locals, students will become a familiar sight once again.
So, as more students are hopeful for a world past-covid and post-lockdown, they are set to step foot back on to campus. For many, this will bring back some sort of normality again in their university teaching experience. It just leaves us to wait and see what will happen in the up and coming months.
