Little support for coronavirus access passes in higher education

There is little support in higher education for the introduction of a coronavirus access pass for students. Those involved fear that the pass will lead to more dropout and extra study delays, De Telegraaf reports.

In a press conference on Tuesday, the Cabinet said that students might soon have to show a coronavirus access pass to get onto campus, should the number of coronavirus infections not decrease with the current measures. The access pass is usually a QR code on the CoronaCheck app, which indicates you have are unlikely to carry the coronavirus because of vaccination, a recent negative test, or a recent recovery from Covid-19. 

"We have to be careful with these kinds of actions," Lisanne de Roos of student association ISO said to the newspaper.

Higher education institutions are also reluctant to start using QR codes. "Apart from the fact that it affects the freedom of education, you have to offer students who do not have coronavirus access pass a fully-fledged alternative. That is difficult with practical studies," a spokesperson for the HAN University of Applied Sciences said to the newspaper.

Several Ministries pointed out that introducing the coronavirus access pass in vocational education is a high barrier to access for large groups of young people and that this may lead to school dropout. The Outbreak Management Team is therefore looking at alternatives, such as mandatory Covid-19 testing for students.