The covid situation in universities is getting a lot of attention, for understandable reasons. All the same it's worth bearing in mind the latest data, which shows clusters coming overwhelmingly in schools

A Test and Trace source says the speed of spread in schools came as a surprise

"Schools have been a disaster. The amount of calls, volume of cases. Within only days of schools going back... It swamped health protection and risked other stuff being missed"

This might well be the future for universities and obviously there are complicating circumstances. (Did they need to go back at all?) But there are a lot more students in school than university and the spread is happening there right now

This is a really good question. Before schools went back government scientists said their infections reflected prevalence in the community, but what I'm hearing from T&T seems to suggest they're a hub for cases. I'd be interested to see more data https://twitter.com/andras190/status/1310186492950654981?s=19

All charts from the weekly PHE surveillance report, an absolute goldmine of useful data https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-covid-19-surveillance-reports