UCL-UCU: Return to campus safety advice - managing face-to-face teaching and inadequate ventilation

In a future message we will offer advice for vulnerable people and those sharing a household with vulnerable or unvaccinated people, plus managing any extra workload arising from COVID-19 mitigation.

Should community infection rates rise further as term progresses, we will need to reassess whether f2f teaching remains safe and viable.

Individuals who are double vaccinated are less likely to become infected and to spread covid than those who are not vaccinated. However, vaccinated people can still become infected. Therefore, it is important that both staff and students are encouraged to use lateral flow tests on a regular, twice weekly basis, and that they do not come into campus if they are infected or if they have symptoms of a respiratory infection.

Students should be encouraged to take a lateral flow test prior to attending f2f teaching.

While face masks and good ventilation can mitigate the risk of transmission of COVID-19 it is important that individuals with symptoms and those who have recently tested positive do not attend f2f teaching. Students should be fully supported if they are unable to attend f2f teaching for these reasons.

1) Face coverings and masks

In summary: in English Universities at the current time, students have a right to refuse to wear a face covering or mask, and the university is obliged to offer them access to education, but that right to refuse does not mean that staff are obliged to teach them in that format or setting.

We advise our members to take their and their students’ safety seriously, and if necessary, stop any class where individuals actively decline to wear a mask without a proper exemption.

Staff are not only entitled but obliged to do this. Colleagues in King’s College London UCU have outlined your legal rights in relation to refusal to teach in unsafe conditions.

Thus, if a student is refusing to wear a mask without an exemption, or they are placing other students or staff at risk by their behaviour, then staff will need to address it:

• At the Induction: As part of the induction session, discuss UCL’s expectation that students wear masks indoors, including in classrooms. If a student says that they are not happy about this, encourage them to discuss their concerns. Offer to talk privately with them.
• In class: If a student turns up to an in-person class without a mask or face covering, offer them a mask (UCL will provide surgical masks). If they decline to wear it, you will need to make a judgement about whether it is safe to continue with the class.
  • If the room is large and the numbers in attendance small, it may be acceptable for them to sit at a window and maintain social distancing of 2m+ from other students. Other students may however not be happy with this.
  • Another option may be to ask them to leave and continue with the class. If the class is recorded the student can watch a recording. It is important that the student be supported in accessing the missed class, however.
  • Alternatively, the class may be rescheduled and run online.

Background

There is some confusion about Government guidance in UCL messaging on students who refuse to wear a mask or face covering. The messaging implies staff cannot stop a class if a student declines to wear one. This is wrong. The Government Operational Guidelines for Higher Education Institutions state:

“No student should be denied education on the grounds of whether they are, or are not, wearing a face covering.”

UCL’s policy on wearing face coverings states:

“You are expected to wear a face covering during classroom teaching. You should ensure your students also do so…

Although this is UCL’s position, the Department for Education has said that students can choose not to wear face coverings and they must not miss out on educational sessions if they do so.”

In addition to managing their own risks, colleagues engaged in teaching are responsible for the safety of students in their class.

If they believe the classroom is unsafe, then they must stop the class and evacuate. This legal obligation applies to other risks such as ventilation (see below).

2) Ventilation

We encourage members to visit their teaching rooms in advance of the bulk of teaching starting next week and try to establish if their room is adequately ventilated. Does it have a functioning ventilation system, or if not, do the windows open and does air flow in or out? A simple test is whether the room smells stale or musty.

If there is any doubt, we advise members to inform their department and contact the Estates service desk, and to request this is fixed.

Ask for an alternative room or run the class online if none is available.

Note that the Health and Safety Executive warns against using desk fans or air conditioning as a substitute for proper ventilation, and that active ventilation is legally required in rooms where there are no windows.

Our Health and Safety representatives are pressing UCL to install signage to assist staff.

Background

UCL has not necessarily carried out a room-by-room assessment of ventilation, despite our Health and Safety reps repeatedly requesting an audit over the summer. Therefore, only a “whole building” assessment of ventilation is available.

However, this is insufficient, as staff need to know whether the ventilation systems in their teaching spaces are:

1. operating at an adequate level (UCU recommends 12-17 litres/person/hour) and
2. venting to the outside (to permit clean air exchanges) rather than recirculating air.

Or, alternatively, that windows open to allow sufficient passive airflow.

UCL Estates have also not distributed CO2 monitors to classrooms, saying they are still doing test runs. A build-up of CO2 above 800ppm would indicate that ventilation had failed or was inadequate.

UCL UCU Executive Committee

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