As confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Nottingham, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been called upon to release their daily confirmed cases of students with coronavirus.
Nottingham Trent University recently launched their own tracking system, where students are encouraged to inform the university if they are self-isolating or have received a positive test result.
This enables the university to support the students in self-isolation and also transfer this information to the NHS to prevent the spread of the virus.
However, many students at the university believe NTU should publicly disclose the number of COVID-19 cases amongst students.
Sam Harris, 20, a final year International Relations and Politics student at NTU said: “The lack of daily info released by NTU is shocking – local residents, staff and students deserve to know just how safe it is for them.
“With the continuation of face-to-face teaching, NTU must be transparent.”
This comes after it was officially announced that Nottingham had the highest level of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.
A spokesperson for NTU told NottsLive: “NTU is following all Government guidance in relation to this pandemic and regularly shares details of any confirmed cases of coronavirus with Public Health England.
“We don’t think it is helpful to provide daily updates regarding numbers of confirmed cases as the situation will change daily and we want to avoid confusion with local public health reporting.”
They added: “We also want students to continue to follow all the rules at all times – as the vast majority are – and don’t want to risk giving them a false sense of security should they perceive any given number to be low against the wider student population.”
“In addition to this, we are keen to avoid comparisons between university data so early in the academic year as institutions’ term dates can differ quite significantly, as can the size of student cohorts.
“Where there are any confirmed cases, we are focused on providing regular and comprehensive support to students who are self-isolating and continuing to provide the latest advice and guidance to all in the NTU community.”
“We have been insisting students complete the NTU coronavirus tracking form if they have had a positive test or are self-isolating, so we can put all the necessary support in place, including mental health support if required, and help Local Health Authorities with Test and Trace,” they said.
This contrasts with the method adopted by the University of Nottingham who release their positive coronavirus cases daily.
If you are an NTU student and are currently in self-isolation, you can access NTU’s tracking form here.
By Faith Pring
Feature image credit: Olimpia Zagnat
How can releasing data cause confusion? I am sure one of the learned profs from the maths dept could help you publish data with the relevant caveats/assumptions so there is no confusion. You would have thought a University would have known the power of data and publishing it. After all, that’s what academics do, right?