Dr. Dominique Thompson, who was GP at the University of Bristol for 20 years and just spent six months administering Covid j abs, said having vaccination centers on campus would make sense as students generally trust their university. “As a generation, these young people are more influenced by their peers. You want them to see other students queuing up to join the queue and support each other, "he said.
Professor Steve West, Vice Chancellor of UWE and President of Universities UK, said:" A the age of 18 most of your life is unplanned. It's so much easier if you can show up and get vaccinated on campus. ”
UWE had a head start because it was the only university to have a Nightingale hospital on campus, and it has used the building and its existing relationships with local NHS partners to establish a vaccination center. The site, which opened in July, is providing 2,000 vaccines a day. The university will tell freshmen before they arrive in Bristol that they may have a flat tire on campus and will remind them when they arrive.
be telling students that getting vaccinated gives them more freedom
West said it had been a "great undertaking" to get the center up and running. He said that negotiating the bureaucracy was slow, because it was a clinical service with many health and safety requirements, so universities cannot "do it alone".
"We will tell students that getting vaccinated gives them more freedom, and that we all have to do it because it is the best way to reduce variants," he said.
Like most universities, UWE is analyzing how the ban on entering nightclubs in England for those not fully vaccinated, which will take effect at the end of September, will work on its campus.
“If you are attending a rookie event that has a ticket or for more than 50 people, you will need proof of double vaccination,” West said. "It does not prevent them from having access to education, classrooms or events below 50, but it does mean that if they want to party they need to take a double hit."
At the University of Reading, the student union ran a big social media campaign in July to remind new students to hurry up and take their first hit so as not to miss out on the fun on rookie week.
Ben Knowles, the president of his student union, said: "People are busy and moving in the summer and we wanted to make sure we gave them more than enough clearance time to fix it." The union will ask for proof that students are fully grounded in order to attend rookie week socials. He added: "The difficult element is that if people have chosen not to be vaccinated, they must take responsibility and accept that it will have consequences."
University of Sussex students who can prove they have been immunized are entering a drawing to win £ 5,000. Other universities are considering similar incentives.
Eileen Schofield, a secretary at the University of Stirling, said freshmen could use their new center, which has the capacity to vaccinate 600 people a day, even if they haven't registered with a local GP. "Vaccination is key to protecting our students, staff, and our community at large," he said. "We want to make it as easy as possible for people to access Covid-19 vaccines."
Be First to Comment