Traveling, Testing, Vaccinations

Despite online teaching, I decided to fly back to London to finish my LLM year. Social interaction is my main reason. It’s hard to keep up the motivation without meaningful interaction with other students from my course, my accommodation or King’s in general.

I wouldn’t recommend an online degree to anyone.

Travel rules

International travel has become subject to a raft of new rules. It took me a solid day to figure out and plan everything. Maybe some of it will still be relevant in September 2021, when the new academic year starts.

Importantly: Keep an eye on the ‘red list’ with banned countries if you plan on accepting an LLM offer from a UK uni and moving to the UK.

1. My home country Belgium requires a valid reason to exit. I had to fill in a ‘sworn statement’ stating an essential reason for international travel. Education qualifies as essential. (The UK also requires a declaration and valid reason to exit.)
2. The UK has banned all travel from ‘red list’ countries (eg Brazil, Portugal, South Africa, UAE), unless with UK/Irish nationality or UK residence rights. However, you’d need to book hotel quarantine for 10 days costing £1750.
3. The UK requires a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test taken within 72h before travel. This cost me €46.81.
4. The UK requires a passenger locator form (PLF) completed within 48h before travel.
5. The UK requires two tests after entry: on day 2 and day 8. These must be booked via the UK Government and cost £210.
6. The UK requires travelers to quarantine for 10 days after entry.
7. Travelers can shorten the quarantine requirement from 10 days to 5 days upon receiving a negative test result on day 5 under the ‘Test to Release Scheme’. You’d need to book this with a private test provider and it typically costs around £150–200.
8. Finally, one for the legal geeks: Isn’t the UK currently in lockdown? Yes, but moving back to university is allowed under Paragraph 2(22)(b) of Schedule 3A of the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020.
9. Rules in Scotland/Northern Ireland/Wales may vary.

The rules are being strictly enforced by airlines and at the UK border. I had to queue for 1h+ at the Heathrow border because they only had four officers checking documents for all UK/EU passengers.

Testing at King’s

In line with Government policy, King’s now offers regular lateral flow tests on Guy’s Campus and in Bush House on Strand Campus — finally. Students who want to enter uni buildings are encouraged to take one or two tests a week. In my view, this should have been university policy in September. Better late than never, I guess.

Alternatively, students can take part in the KCL TEST COVID-19 Study.

Everyone can also access local (non-King’s) lateral flow testing facilities, even without symptoms. Previously, (NHS) testing was restricted to people having symptoms.

I must say that pre-travel testing, KCL testing, and community testing has made me feel safer. It’s a true mystery why this has only been introduced a full year after the pandemic started.

Vaccinations

I think everyone is very proud of the vaccination progress in the UK. The Government plans to offer all adults a first dose jab by 31 July 2021. This would mean that next academic year could be somewhat normal.

If you want to move to the UK, keep an eye on the ‘vaccine passport’ discussions. Will travelers need to be vaccinated in order enter the UK? Will students need to be vaccinated before attending in-person teaching?

In the meantime, I’ll be taking tests and waiting patiently for my GP (King’s College London NHS Health Centre) to contact me about my turn to get vaccinated.

Next time, I’ll show you around campus or review my modules since teaching on the LLM is soon coming to an end .

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