Digital Poverty

The ability of students to participate in higher education from home is being disrupted by a lack of access to core digital infrastructure, new survey data published by the Office for Students (@officestudents) shows today, as a major new review into digital teaching and learning is launched.

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown, 52 per cent of students said their learning was impacted by slow or unreliable internet connection, with 8 per cent ‘severely’ affected. According to the poll of 1,416 students, run for the OfS by Natives:

• 71 per cent reported lack of access to a quiet study space, with 22 per cent ‘severely’ impacted
• 56 per cent said they lacked access to appropriate online course materials, with 9 per cent ‘severely’ impacted
• 18 per cent were impacted by lack of access to a computer, laptop or tablet – 4 per cent said they were ‘severely’ impacted.

The findings come as OfS chair, Sir Michael Barber, launches a major review of digital teaching and learning in English higher education today. Examining the relationship between digital poverty and students’ academic experience is one area of the review.

The review will also consider how digital technology has been used to deliver remote education since the pandemic started; how high-quality digital teaching and learning can be delivered at scale in the future; and the opportunities that digital education presents for universities in medium and long term. It will draw on examples of successful online teaching from the UK and overseas, particularly in the lockdown.

Digital poverty particularly affected home learning during the recent lockdowns.

While nearly all students had online access in the home, 4 per cent relied solely on mobile internet access during the pandemic with 2 per cent only able to get online using a smartphone.

Additionally, around 17 per cent of school aged children did not have consistent access to a suitable device for their online home-learning.
This increased to 27 per cent of children from households classed as most financially vulnerable.

Most children with intermittent access had to share a device to manage home-schooling but for 3 per cent, the lack of access to a device prevented them from doing any schoolwork at all.