University Students: Compensation for Lost Teaching and Rent Debate
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Felicity Buchan
Main Page: Felicity Buchan (Conservative - Kensington)Department Debates - View all Felicity Buchan's debates with the Department for Education
University Students: Compensation for Lost Teaching and Rent
Felicity Buchan Excerpts(3 years, 8 months ago)
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Michelle Donelan
I can indeed. I agree with my hon. Friend that testing plays an important part in mitigating the risk of transmission and assure him that under no circumstances will any student have to incur financial costs as a result of participating in our testing programme.
Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)
I am very concerned about the mental health of students who are still not back at university. I am conscious that the university experience is about way more than lectures and tutorials—at least, it was for me. Will my hon. Friend please update the House on what we are doing to support the mental health of students who are not yet back at university?
Michelle Donelan
My hon. Friend is right: the wider student experience has been extremely impacted over the last year, despite the hard work of universities and student unions. UUK is sharing best practice and ideas to support universities to prioritise and enrich the student experience on return, and we are working with UUK on that.
Throughout the pandemic, I have reiterated to universities the importance of prioritising mental health and wellbeing and worked with them to enable that, including by convening a mental health working group. We have also worked closely with the OfS and launched Student Space, a £3 million mental health platform through which students can access support during the pandemic.