S TA F F O R D S H I R E U N I V E R S I T Y
SPOTLIGHT ON
Liz Barnes and Staffordshire University T H E C O V I D - 19 P A N D E M I C H A S H A D A H U G E IMPACT ON OUR SOCIET Y AND MANY ASPECT S OF HOW WE LIVE AND WORK HAVE CHANGED SINCE MARCH 2020. For the education sector the pandemic led to a rapid transition to online teaching and learning. Staffordshire University, like many of our counterparts in the HE sector, was quick to transition and adapt under immense pressure, accelerating the move to an already increasingly digital world. As our post-pandemic Britain will inevitably be more online, increased efforts must be made to ensure that society’s pursuit of a digital future does not widen social mobility gaps. In the race to ‘be more digital’ we must take all measures possible to ensure that those living in our deprived communities and with the most complex backgrounds are not left behind. Digital poverty is a very real and current problem, one which has been brought into sharp relief during this pandemic. In September, a survey from the Office for Students (OfS) found that during the first national lockdown 52% of university students said their learning was impacted by slow or
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unreliable internet connection and 18% were impacted by lack of access to a computer, laptop or tablet. We know that students at Staffordshire University are disproportionately affected by digital poverty. About 47% of our student community come from disadvantaged backgrounds and more than 50% are mature learners. Many students don’t have access to study spaces at home, they might be single parents or carers and so the pressures they face are very high. They might also lack access to IT equipment. However, their learning should not suffer because of this. That is why Staffordshire is offering access to hundreds of laptops to ensure that disadvantaged students and their families do not get left behind in the latest national lockdown. Our Digital Services team have made the offer of loan laptops available to all students, handing out hundreds of computers since the first lockdown. Following the recent school closures, laptop computers are also now being provided to the children of our students to support them in homeschooling. Some parents have had no choice but to share their laptop across the family. Yet nobody – young or older – should find themselves without the means to access their learning. A parent’s commitment to their child’s education should not be at the cost of their own.
