Not allowed to go home at the weekend, not allowed to mix with students outside your bubble, not allowed to have parties, maybe not allowed for Xmas?

[chomalungma]

I really feel sorry for students at Uni in Scotland.

Those students who are feeling isolated. Those who just want some fun and to experience student life.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-54285720

And break these rules and you could lose your university place

@RB68

Personally I would be booking somewhere to do 14 days iso and then going home, its not helpful keeping them all where they are its become a hotbed in the halls they need to divvy it up. Its a mess

What do you mean by divvying it up? If it really did become a "hotbed in the halls" they could all be immune by November and safely able to go home. Prolonging the spread arguably reduces the quality of their life and ultimately won't help lower transmission to the community.

@Starksforthewin

I don’t feel sorry for them. They are not being fucked over, it’s a global pandemic, a once in a lifetime event. So they lose a year of partying? Big fucking deal. They have another sixty, seventy years of life ahead.

I can guarantee that, if the virus was as serious for them, they would take it more seriously, but most of them don’t give a fuck about anything other than their own selfish agenda.

I will save my sympathy for old people with only a few years, languishing in care homes or cancer patients dying in pain, not able to access hospice or palliative care and truly suffering.

One thing this virus has shown is the myth of society. Everyone looks for someone who has it better than they do. Those people who rushed back to pubs and to the Spanish Costas, the covid deniers and mask refusers are entirely concerned with their own lives and won’t tolerate any restrictions on it. What a pity they are not the people dying on ventilators or living with symptoms of long covid.

I thought Brits were terminally stupid when they voted for Brexit, but this pandemic behaviour has shown the depth to which the country has sunk.
Students not being able to get pissed or off their heads because it’s ‘tradition’ are the least of our worries.

Regardless of the cause, yes they are being fucked over. As are single parents, as are elderly people in care homes and single people having to shield.

It is, in fact, possible to feel empathy for more than one group of people. The fact is, kids as young as 16 have left home on the promise of a properly thought out approach to their education and have been hung out to dry. If you think it's just about students complaining about not being able to get drunk then you clearly have no fucking business posting your inflammatory shite.

I have as much business posting my opinion as you do, Boing

You’ve chosen not to understand the balance in my post. Shrugs

Colour me uninterested in your view.

This year's freshers have been fucked over time and time again. 1st cohort to have the revised SATs, first cohort to have the new GCSEs, shambles with the A level results and now the shambles of starting uni. They have been resilient and are amazing. Yes they are spreading COVID - but what on earth was expected.

If I met up with my colleagues it would spread it. The people who gather at the pub at the end of the road to watch football spread it, the people who reach across each other in the supermarket spread it, the people who mooch into town to see the shops spread it, the people who ate out to help out spread it..... it is just that it is more difficult to group and label them.

@Starksforthewin

I have as much business posting my opinion as you do, Boing

You’ve chosen not to understand the balance in my post. Shrugs

Colour me uninterested in your view.

Yes you do. It's just a fucking stupid one.

Blimey. Why are you all shouting at each other! It’s possible to feel sorry for students without being melodramatic about it. My son is one. Yes he had the new GCSEs, didn’t sit his A levels (that was a plus as far as he was concerned!), 18th birthday in lockdown, Had his gap year cancelled and now had a shit Freshers. Yes it is crap but that’s just the way it is for now. No point wailing and gnashing teeth. Luckily (like his parents) he just gets in with it and looks on the bright side -he’s off to Uni to do a subject he loved, will meet lots of fun people and get to explore a new city.

People really need to get a sense of perspective. I am exempted those with genuine mental health issues here, rather than drama llamas. Your children will pick up on your views (no matter what you say, they know) so have a whinge and then get on with it! There’s a lot of positive out there. 💗 Hopefully a vaccine will be on its way, treatments are improving all the time. Go and take a break if you are overwhelmed with all of this.

It is, in fact, possible to feel empathy for more than one group of people. The fact is, kids as young as 16 have left home on the promise of a properly thought out approach to their education and have been hung out to dry

This.

The fact is, kids as young as 16 have left home on the promise of a properly thought out approach to their education and have been hung out to dry.

I totally disagree that there hasn't been any thought into their education. Universities are doing their best in what are very difficult circumstances .What exactly do you think they should be doing differently?

@BoingBoingyBoing

I can guarantee that, if the virus was as serious for them, they would take it more seriously, but most of them don’t give a fuck about anything other than their own selfish agenda

So exactly what the boomer brexitiers did to the younger generation, 75% didn't want Brexit?

If your concerned about CV, lock yourself away.

A C4 journalist asked for clarification on this - the "official" line is that no students, of any kind, in Scotland, should be going to pubs/cafes/restaurants this weekend. No exceptions.

That's the rule for a 18 year old fresher living in a building with 500 other freshers.

It's also supposed to be the rule for me, an ancient 40 something postgrad living at home with the kids. Nippy seriously thinks it's OK to tell me that I shouldn't be going to Costa with DD tomorrow because today I'm a student and yesterday I wasn't.

What a pile of shite. How hard is it to say "students who are living on campus with other students are advised not to..." without making a blanket ruling?

[quote jasjas1973]@BoingBoingyBoing

I can guarantee that, if the virus was as serious for them, they would take it more seriously, but most of them don’t give a fuck about anything other than their own selfish agenda

So exactly what the boomer brexitiers did to the younger generation, 75% didn't want Brexit?

If your concerned about CV, lock yourself away.[/quote]
Yeah, you are quoting the wrong person there.

@Belladonna12

The fact is, kids as young as 16 have left home on the promise of a properly thought out approach to their education and have been hung out to dry.

I totally disagree that there hasn't been any thought into their education. Universities are doing their best in what are very difficult circumstances .What exactly do you think they should be doing differently?

I think I've already made that pretty clear. I fundamentally disagree with universities and the Scottish government encouraging the mass movement of students when it was patently fucking obvious what has happened would happen. It was at best naive and at worst completely irresponsible.

There is no reason why a very large number of courses could not have been moved online, but as higher education has fundamentally been turned into a business the bullshit message that it was business as usual was the one pushed.

Although the nation cannot afford to shut everything down otherwise we cannot fund the NHS and we cannot afford to pay benefits to those out of work. It is not as simple as shut down everything and we will all be safe.

I think I've already made that pretty clear. I fundamentally disagree with universities and the Scottish government encouraging the mass movement of students when it was patently fucking obvious what has happened would happen. It was at best naive and at worst completely irresponsible.

What was perfectly clear and when was it clear? Do you actually think that universities could have predicted that cases would rise in September a few months ago? Even if they do rise we don't know that that means students will spread it to the rest of the population. Even if they could predict it you do realise that they are businesses that employ thousands and thousands of people. Did you expect them to go out of business because of the prediction. Have any other businesses not opened even if allowed to do so and opted to go bankrupt instead. I don't think so.

There is no reason why a very large number of courses could not have been moved online, but as higher education has fundamentally been turned into a business the bullshit message that it was business as usual was the one pushed.

Most lectures are online at the moment. For anything that's face-to-face people will be social distancing and there will be wearing masks. That's not the reason for the rise in cases.

I feel sorry for everyone 😨

@BoingBoingyBoing Yep sorry.

^16/17/18 year olds have then been actively encouraged to leave home (in most cases, for the first time) knowing that face to face contact with staff and other students would be extremely limited. People catching the virus are then having to self isolate in a single room with limited access to cooking/washing facilities*

That's not the case in most universities. In the one I work in, the halls are actually quite good this year as they have reduced the number of people to a kitchen/bathroom and extra rooms can be used as study rooms or dining rooms. Students aren't isolating in a single room at all. The whole household will isolate if one of them is infected so they will be with at least five other people.

It's older people shitting on the young. Middle aged and old people making rules that will ruin young people's future and they are also the ones who will be expected to pay for this crap for years to come. So what if they all have covid? They're fine. If you're vulnerable, shield. Let the rest of the world to try and function.

@Belladonna12

I think I've already made that pretty clear. I fundamentally disagree with universities and the Scottish government encouraging the mass movement of students when it was patently fucking obvious what has happened would happen. It was at best naive and at worst completely irresponsible.

What was perfectly clear and when was it clear? Do you actually think that universities could have predicted that cases would rise in September a few months ago? Even if they do rise we don't know that that means students will spread it to the rest of the population. Even if they could predict it you do realise that they are businesses that employ thousands and thousands of people. Did you expect them to go out of business because of the prediction. Have any other businesses not opened even if allowed to do so and opted to go bankrupt instead. I don't think so.

I'm sorry, but it's patently obvious a highly contagious virus is going to spread quickly in very confined environments such as university halls, aided by the active encouragement to mix on the part of universities and particually some student unions

I've been to university as a 18 year old and later as a mature student to obtain 2 degrees and have worked at a university in between, and I feel desperately sorry for the kids and staff being impacted but honestly, this was a situation which could have been mitigated to a far better extent.

@WhereamI88

It's older people shitting on the young. Middle aged and old people making rules that will ruin young people's future and they are also the ones who will be expected to pay for this crap for years to come. So what if they all have covid? They're fine. If you're vulnerable, shield. Let the rest of the world to try and function.

I'd love to see how well the world functions if all middle-aged and older people are shielding.

I'm sorry, but it's patently obvious a highly contagious virus is going to spread quickly in very confined environments such as university halls, aided by the active encouragement to mix on the part of universities and particually some student unions

I'm sorry, but what evidence do you have that some universities are actively encouraging students to mix?

I've been to university as a 18 year old and later as a mature student to obtain 2 degrees and have worked at a university in between, and I feel desperately sorry for the kids and staff being impacted but honestly, this was a situation which could have been mitigated to a far better extent.

And again. What exactly do you think Universitise should have done? Most lectures are online. There has been very little if any face-to-face tutorials so far in the great majority of universities. Where there is face-to-face contact there will be social distancing .That is not the cause of the rise in cases in some universities.

I feel so sorry for students right now, all the things that make uni fun are banned and you can't even go home if it all gets too much. Yes we're all going through this but it's an awful lot easier when you're settled, you are only at Uni once for the first time.

I'd love to see how well the world functions if all middle-aged and older people are shielding.

Yes me too, especially considering those they live with would have to be careful too. I agree there is more the government should be doing to help ease us back, but even the Tories acknowledge it isn't fair or workable.