For the first time in 800 years: Cambridge University scraps in-person lectures for 2020-2021

LONDON: Cambridge has become the first university in Britain to cancel all face-to-face lectures for the 2020-21 academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic, after 800 years of welcoming students to its cloisters, quadrangles and classrooms.

It likely won’t be the last, as the virus threatens the foundations of the traditional student experience, and the finances of universities around the world.

Cambridge said late on Tuesday that all lectures will be held virtually and streamed online until summer 2021. It said it may be possible to hold tutorials and other teaching in small groups — a key part of the university’s system — when the new academic year starts in October, as long as social distancing can be followed.