Universities could be fined for failing to return to in-person teaching, minister warns

Michelle Donelan has warned that if universities fail to return to face-to-face teaching, they may face large penalties.

The universities minister told The Mail on Sunday she plans to “put boots on the ground” and send teams of inspectors to check staff attendance rates at campuses across the UK.

Where universities don’t meet the required standards, they could “potentially be fined or could even lose the ability to access money from the student loan system.”

“We’re all enjoying the freedoms that the vaccine has enabled us to have,”the minister said. ” Students and lecturers will be going to the pub, going out for meals, they’ll be going to parties, going to weddings, probably concerts, so it doesn’t actually make sense that they can’t then be in a lecture theatre.”