UK students have been left confused by the government guidelines allowing face-to-face lessons from 17th May 2021.
Most students have already finished university for the summer with the exception of some online exams in May.
This means some students will be finishing their first year without having stepped inside their university or had any face-to-face lessons.
Manchester Metropolitan, English student Aoife, 20, said: “It is basically an online course, but I’m paying triple what an online course costs.”
Students like Aoife have been charged £9,250 for a year of online teaching whereas the part-time online courses from the Open University cost only £3,168.
Aoife added: “It’s been frustrating because I’m not able to access all of the facilities or recourses that other years could use. I’ve just had to do it on my own.”
The restrictions have also impacted the social elements of university as most students have not yet been able to meet their peers in person.
However, more practical courses requiring specialist facilities have officially been able to attend lessons from the March 8, 2021.
Other courses have extended their finishing dates to accommodate the missed learning.
Broadcast journalism student Emmie Norton said: “I’m technically meant to finish university on the May, 17 and most of my online lessons do finish then. But, because of COVID, some of my classes have been extended up till the June, 3 2021 to make up for their missed learning.”
Although nursery’s, primary schools, and high schools have opened up their doors; with the help of lateral flow testing, most university courses will now have to wait until after summer to get back to some normality.