This is the forty-first of a series of bulletins produced by ISE to update members on key data and policy related to Covid-19. This bulletin covers the period 14th – 20th January 2021.

You can access all of the Covid-19 bulletins on ISE insights.

Latest Covid-19 data

Data taken from Wikipedia and from the government’s Covid-19 dashboard.

The UK has now had over 3.5 million identified Covid-19 cases and 95,829 deaths (with Covid on the death certificate). The R rate is estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.3 with the daily infection rate growing by 2%-5%.

The growth in the number of new cases appears to have peaked and is starting to come down. However, the number of new cases a day remains very high with hospital numbers and deaths continuing to grow.

Covid news

• The vaccination of the UK population is proceeding rapidly, but there are still a lot of challenges in achieving sufficient coverage.
• The government promises to offer all adults the vaccine by September as the Prime Minister argues that this is the best way out of the crisis. But mutations in the virus are making achieving herd immunity more difficult. Data from December suggests over 80% may still be vulnerable to the virus.
• Demand on the NHS has been growing leading to concerns about capacity.
• There are concerns as to whether people on low incomes are able to self-isolate when they need to.
• The UK has shut travel corridors and now requires negative Covid test to enter the country.
• Ministers report that the UK is nowhere near lifting Covid restrictions.

Education

• Concerns about the quality of the food provided in place of free school meals resulted in the promise of a crackdown by Boris Johnson following a meeting with Marcus Rashford. But, the government is not planning to provide free school meals during the February half term. There are also concerns about the impact that digital poverty is having on students attainment and progression.
• There have been delays in the rollout of the government’s traineeship scheme.
• University students are mainly learning from home. The Office for Students has been scrutinising the situation, but it is not clear what can be done. David Kernohan explores approaches to compensation for students whilst Sonia Sodha argues that they deserve a refund. Meanwhile lecturers are considering strike action if they are forced back into the lecture hall.
• Career guidance has received new attention this week with the publication of new research on international trends and how the field has responded to the pandemic.

The economy

• The FTSE 100 has had its worst week since October.
• Living standards are expected to decline during 2021.
• The Office for National Statistics publish new data on the business impacts of Covid.

The labour market

• Charlie Ball offers his weekly update on the graduate labour market while Highflyers publish their summary of 2020.
• Research from Impetus PEF suggests that there are ongoing problems with youth unemployment.

Student recruitment

• The ISE continues to offer lots of advice for employers in the crisis. This includes 7 tips on building a robust student recruitment strategy and 8 tips for campus attraction in 2021.
• Siemens have won plaudits for their new recruitment plans. While Microsoft have been focusing on diversity.

Working practice

• The pandemic may permanently change some of the ways that we work. Unilever announce that their staff will never return full-time to their desks.
• If we are going to be working from home, we need to find new ways to increase our motivation and think about what remote working should look like.