Student accommodation sector set for harsh Covid-19 lesson
Third-level colleges have emptied for the summer but their managements are already grappling with how they will conduct a new academic year in the shadow of Covid-19. Many are considering holding lectures partly or fully online, with limited face-to-face contact for tutorials, practicals and laboratory work.
They also face the potential loss of international students, worth about €380 million a year to the Republic’s colleges and universities. About 17,000, almost equal to the entire student body of Trinity College Dublin, attended third level here during the academic year just ended.
Some predict that this could fall by as much as 80 per cent in the autumn, but the final figure depends so many variables that it remains hard to predict. “We’re really peering into the unknown here,” concedes Jim Miley, director general of the Irish Universities Association (IUA) …