Students undeterred from university plans by COVID-19

Eleana Davidson on 22 April 2020
Students undeterred from university plans by COVID-19

If you ask around to see what people have planned for the summer you’d likely get a few blank faces in return. Planning ahead seems almost impossible right now, with no sign of lockdown letting up or normality restoring, we’re mostly just taking each day as it comes. But when we asked students about their September plans, we got an almost unanimous response that university was still on the cards and the countdown is on. 

Over 90% of potential undergraduate students say that COVID-19 has not affected their plans to attend university this September. And despite uncertainty over start dates and teaching methods, only 1% of students said they were planning to change their university and only 3% said they were planning to change their course subject.

 

Students are getting used to the new normal. Although they have concerns over the duration of COVID-19, they aren’t overly worried about their future plans. What’s on their mind are the more immediate issues, such as whether universities will offer leniency on grade boundaries and if and when the new academic year will start.

- Katherine Nicholls, Director of Research at Student Hut.

They’re aware that some things may look a little different once September rolls by, and freshers’ week parties in packed nightclubs may have to be reassessed, but more than half of students said they would be happy to start the academic year in September, even if courses were online-only.

And say enrollments needed to be pushed back a little bit? Three in five students would be happy for university to be slightly delayed until October.

 At the end of the day, keeping healthy is the most important thing, and if it means university starts later to make sure we’re safe, then so be it.

- Student Hut Opinion Panel 

So what’s the takeaway here? Keep the channels of communication open and keep reassuring prospective students that their future is safe in your hands. If you’d like to find out the many more interesting and insightful findings from the Covid-19 Tracker, you can subscribe to receive our full report delivered to your inbox every week. 

Eleana Davidson
Eleana Davidson on 22 April 2020