调查称多数高校教职工对返校感到不安全

随着面对面教学的逐步恢复,仅有不到1/3受访者对校方保护员工福祉的措施感到满意

九月 16, 2021
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根据泰晤士高等教育进行的一项全球调查,随着全球高校在今年秋季恢复面对面教学,仅有1/4的教职员感觉返校是安全的。

在这项由535名学者和高等教育专业人士完成的调查中,有53%的受访者表示,鉴于新冠病毒确诊病例数居高不下,他们对重返面对面教学或校园工作感到不安全。

只有28%的受访者表示他们感到安全,19%的受访者表示不确定。

该调查于9月6日至13日开放,绝大多数受访者来自英国。英国目前平均每日的确诊病例数超过30000例,而平均每日死亡人数超过100人。许多英国高校承诺将尽可能多地进行面对面教学,但也有很多机构将维持大规模线上讲座。

在泰晤士高等教育的调查中,有78%的受访者表示,他们认为恢复面对面教学会导致其所在地区的新冠病毒感染病例激增,而这种情况已经在一些恢复教学的美国校园中上演。

THE return to campus survey results. Graphs showing how safe people feel about in-person teaching and a spike in coronavirus

有96%的受访者表示,他们将在学期开始时接种疫苗,但年轻群体的接种率通常要低得多;在英国,18至24岁的人群中半数尚未接受过两次疫苗注射。

当被问及他们是否对大学为确保新学年安全开始所采取的措施感到满意时,45%的人表示不满意,24%的人不确定,只有31%的受访者称他们感到满意。

许多英国高校已转而鼓励师生在校园内佩戴口罩,但这并非强制措施,而且英国高校并未效仿美国一些大学强制为师生提供疫苗的做法——尽管这些措施被一些共和党州所禁止。

拉夫堡大学(Loughborough University)社会互动教授伊丽莎白·斯托科(Elizabeth Stokoe)说:“虽然疫苗接种率很高,但英国在新学年开始时的病例数比2020年秋季要多得多。”

英国紧急情况独立科学咨询小组(SAGE)曾于本月发表一份关于新冠疫情与大学的报告,作为该报告的撰写人,斯托科教授说,英国政府在关键问题上“缺乏明确性”,如分阶段开学日期、佩戴面部遮盖物和通风规定等。

斯托科教授说:“应当支持教职工和学生做出有利于他们身心健康的选择,例如真正的灵活性和避免出勤(的机会)。”

“此外,作为新冠疫情科学和政策建议的引擎室,大学应该为其他工作场所和教育环境带路,成为优秀和安全实践的典范。”

多位校长一再表示,讲师们期盼着恢复面对面教学,但这一点并未得到调查结果的压倒性支持,只有25%的受访者表示他们很激动能恢复面对面教学或校内工作。有43%的人说他们不激动,而27%的人表示“有点”激动。

然而,有明显迹象表明学术界正在转向灵活工作模式,62%的受访者表示,与疫情之前相比,他们的大学现在提供了更多混合工作选项。

美国是个例外,该国只有1/4的受访者报告了这个朝向的发展,这可能是美国受访者更有可能说他们对返校感到不安全的因素之一。他们中有68%的人给出了这个回应。 有62%的美国受访者对其大学为所采取的安全措施表示不满意。

在被调查的所有国家和地区中,18至34 岁年龄段的受访者最有可能对大学为新学期所做的准备感到不满意(55%),而51至64岁年龄段的受访者只有38%这样认为。

在评论中,许多受访者表示,缺乏清晰度是让他们紧张的主要原因。一位受访者写道:“大学实际上并就现有措施与教职员工进行沟通。” 另一位受访者则表示:“空气质量监测和通风缺乏透明度让我感到紧张。”

有些人确实期盼返校。一位受访者说:“让我们回到面对面教学吧。这是学生们想要的。”但大多数评论反映了总体结果。另一位受访者说:“我理解有必要恢复一些面对面教学,但如果政府能强制要求在所有课堂和公共区域戴口罩,我会感觉好得多。”

anna.mckie@timeshighereducation.com

后记

Print headline: Survey: most staff feel unsafe back on campus

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Reader's comments (9)

Can I just ask why these academics feel they are special or different ? Is it because of their education, pay grade or organisational or societal status ? At the height of the pandemic, when testing was hard to obtain and the vaccine had not been rolled out (or even proven effective) , thousands of cleaning staff, maintenance staff and security staff were going into work and also dealing with the thousands of infected students who were marooned in halls. For 18 months many academics sat at home working remotely. This is the real world and it is incredibly elitist and divisive to suggest that their concerns (in a world where most people interacting will be vaccinated and the precaution and testing available are in full swing) weigh more heavily than those who have worked on the frontline. It absolutely stinks. They really need to take a long hard look at themselves and understand that getting back to work as we live with this disease, means just that. Back to work and positively contribute and help manage how we do this as safely as possible.
"Do you feel safe" isn't quite the right question. We can never be 100% safe against covid, or indeed any other infectious virus. Better to ask "do you think it's the right thing to return to face to face teaching?"
As someone who filled out the questionnaire and has no problem returning to campus, I can only agree with the points made by cactus77. I am only "vulnerable" due to age (I am 58) and do not have any other health conditions. Driving my car regularly is probably more dangerous than returning to campus and the mental health impact of the pandemic has become greater than the perceived risk from COVID-19. I am very aware of my mortality as I approach retirement but am not prepared just to exist isolated from many colleagues and the students when we have to get to a situation where COVID-19 is endemic but not dangerous. Personally, I do not worry, having been brought low as a child by the measles, which is much worse for most of us than this current virus. If the NHS can cope, there is no number of daily cases that would prompt me to reinstate the previous restrictions.
I completely agree. And that's an excellent point about isolation.
I agree with the comments above that we need to have some perspective. However, "getting back to work" is a bit of an insult to those academics who kept working full time during the pandemic, just not face-to-face. If anything, many of them clocked in even more hours to convert teaching material for remote delivery (not always a quick and easy thing to do!) or put in plance contingency plans for research projects, PhD projects... while of course, still providing support, tutoring, and pastoral care to students. We should stop assuming some people have been on holiday for 17 months.
Nobody is expecting be 100% safe, but what is wrong with mitigating the risk of infection? Is it such a sacrifice to wear a mask when it might protect more vulnerable people from serious or chronic illness, or death? Universities could reduce transmission on campus and in the community if, say, staff and students were advised to self-isolate and get a PCR test if they display current predominant symptoms in the region (cold/flu-like symptoms - sore/dry throat, sneezing, runny nose, headache, anosmia). Unfortunately and inexplicably, NHS/Govt advice is months out of date on this. Why shouldn’t universities protect the health and well being of students and staff by adequately ventilating classrooms in line with scientific advice? If we proceed with a little more caution now, we may prevent further illness, bereavement and lockdowns later.
Nobody is expecting be 100% safe, but what is wrong with mitigating the risk of infection? Is it such a sacrifice to wear a mask when it might protect more vulnerable people from serious or chronic illness, or death? Universities could reduce transmission on campus and in the community if, say, staff and students were advised to self-isolate and get a PCR test if they display current predominant symptoms in the region (cold/flu-like symptoms - sore/dry throat, sneezing, runny nose, headache, anosmia). Unfortunately and inexplicably, NHS/Govt advice is months out of date on this. Why shouldn’t universities protect the health and well being of students and staff by adequately ventilating classrooms in line with scientific advice? If we proceed with a little more caution now, we may prevent further illness, bereavement and lockdowns later.
Cactus77 seems to have entirely missed the point. Many staff, including academics working in research labs, were coming into campus during lockdowns, and working safely because proper precautions were followed. Now staff and students are being required to work and study in unsafe conditions. Masks merely "encouraged" (and teaching staff forbidden to wear them in some cases), no social distancing, little serious attention paid to vaccination, little serious effort on testing, .... And students coming from all over the country and all over the world, and mingling socially in large groups. This is dangerous for students, staff and local communities. But staff who are heavily student-facing roles and who are older or have clinical vulnerabilities are most at risk, and vaccination is no guarantee against long covid, hospitalisation or death.
To reply to Cactus77, academics are not special or different, like all staff we whether professional services, estates, teaching, whatever; we are employees and have a legal right to a safe place of work. That safety is being compromised. Academic work is not A&E, it's a job. If we take risks now with one million students moving around the country, students who will inevitably socialise as students do, crowded lecture theatres and so on, we will see rising infection rates and possibly serious consequences.