University leaders are considering whether to make Covid-19 vaccination a requirement for students and staff, with some suggesting that anti-vaxxers within the university community were a growing concern.

Carol Christ, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, said that the institution was ¡°requiring all of our employees and students to take a vaccine education online module¡±, while it has been ¡°having the conversation about whether we [will] require the vaccine for employees¡±.

She was responding to a question on whether universities were considering issuing vaccine passports to allow their students to travel more freely during a debate on universities in a post-Covid world, organised by the Central European University (CEU). On that specific question, she said she thought vaccine passports would be issued, but they would be ¡°state controlled, not university controlled¡±.

Michael Ignatieff, president of the CEU, who chaired the discussion, said that ¡°institutions may have to make vaccines mandatory¡±.

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¡°I just don¡¯t know how we can operate institutions [otherwise]. The epidemiological risk is too high would be my off-the-top-of-my-head judgement,¡± he said.

Louise Richardson, vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, said that her institution was grappling with the question of ¡°what do you do if some members of your community refuse to accept a vaccine¡±, noting that there was a strong anti-vaccine movement in many countries. However, she said she did not have a settled answer yet.

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¡°I was asked this at an open forum with all our staff: what are we going to do to all those who, the way the question put it, jeopardise the health of their colleagues by refusing to get a vaccine? I¡¯m afraid I put it back to them and said: ¡®What do you think we should do?¡¯ because I think it¡¯s a really tough question.¡±

Regarding the idea of university-issued vaccine passports to allow travel, Professor Richardson said that ¡°by the time it comes to our students being vaccinated, I think these issues will all be resolved on a national level¡±, given that students were generally a low priority for vaccination.

Many governments are considering whether to introduce vaccine passports as a way to reopen international borders and encourage a resumption of travel, but there have been several concerns with such a policy, including whether vaccinated people can still spread the virus and whether it would create a social divide and entrench inequality.

ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com