Students isolating after testing positive for Covid-19 were ordered not to leave their halls of residence if fire alarms went off – until everyone else had left the building.
Glasgow Caledonian University issued the guidance to Covid-positive students in a bid to stop them mixing with other undergraduates during a fire alarm.
It has now withdrawn the guidance and issued new advice.
Last night politicians blasted the actions by the university as ‘flabbergasting’.
The email was sent to students who have been kept in isolation at halls of residence in the city centre since growing numbers tested positive for Coronavirus after returning to their studies last month.
At least two dozen students have tested positive and around twenty more are isolating at the Caledonian Court halls of residence and flats in the city centre.
A spokesman for Glasgow Caledonian University said the earlier guidance had been withdrawn and new emails have now been issued to affected students.
The spokesman said: “This guidance has been withdrawn and new guidance has been issued to residents.
“The current guidance advises: ‘On activation of the fire alarm all residents must evacuate the building immediately.
“Having evacuated, all residents should seek to maintain an appropriate physical distancing and wear a face covering if at all possible’.
“The first email went only to those residents who were self isolating. The revised guidance has gone out to all students.”
Glasgow Caledonian University student president Susan Docherty said: “The university have made me aware of previous guidance which requested that students self-isolating delay evacuating Caledonian Court during a fire drill until those who are not have done so.
“However, I note the guidance did say to disregard this instruction if smoke or fire were detected.
“I am content that GCU has moved to clarify this guidance to remove segregation of any kind, whether a drill or not.
“The health, safety and wellbeing of students continues to be GCU’s highest priority and that they are doing everything they can to offer personalised support to our students through this very challenging time.”
More than two dozen students at Glasgow Caledonian University have tested positive for Covid-19.
A university spokesman said last night: “The current figures are 27 students confirmed positive and 68 self-isolating.“
Last week students at the university claimed that they did not ‘feel safe’.
Others from Glasgow University and Edinburgh University also claimed they had felt ‘abandoned’ by the authorities amid anger over inadequate food supplies, PPE, cleaning products and medical support.
Many were angered that they had been encouraged to return to universities when they could have emailed safer at home.
Scottish Conservative Education spokesman Jamie Green MSP said is ‘staggered belief’ that anyone would ‘think it sensible or even plausible’ to issue guidance telling students to remain in situ is a fire alarm went off.
He said: “Students, and importantly their parents, would have been outraged to discover that Covid positive students were given different advice to the rest of the population in how to react to a serious fire or emergency.
“Whilst the guidance has been tidied up and cleared, this cohort of young people have already been through a horrendous few weeks and months, we have a duty to make life as easy and stress free as we can. Not punish them further .
“Whilst universities have to take reasonable precautions to safeguard their staff and students, it’s flabbergasting to learn that Covid positive young people were advised to react differently to fire alarms or emergencies.
“These poor young people have been through enough in recent weeks and months, with so much restrictive guidance thrown at them to deal with, this takes it to a whole new level.
“It’s right that this institution has cleared up the advice, but surely we must all have a good think about what we say to this cohort of students before adding to their stress and trauma of being stuck in halls with the virus.”
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