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

I think it's completely unacceptable to make the people least at risk suffer the most. Being in your early 20s is a headfuck at the best of times. Doing it alone... Well I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be here any more.

there is care work, cleaning work, supermarket work, hospitality has opened up
ok they cant travel everywhere.

DD finds it really hard being isolated from people generally, ie she's always studied in a school or uni library where she can, rather than in a room on her own (she contacted support services at uni last year, but by the time they had a space, she felt better) Everything is online, and she had to evaluate whether to go back - she did. Her and one of her other roommates where talking about coing back on Monday as it felt back then, so I'm worried. They tried to go out Monday evening to help, but everywhere was booked. She knows to do the right thing, ie she didn't go to a house party. She doesn't want to be seen out with her flatmates now, not even to do their individual food shops together.

Have to say I'm worried as she's going to feel trapped there. We're a seven hour drive away. If she really needs to come home for her mental health, I'm hoping she won't lose her place as she'll isolate in two rooms here and stay for the foreseeable.

Universities actively encouraged students to attend in person knowing full well teaching would be online only, and now that's bitten them (and the government) on the arse, who is getting the blame.

Not true . Universities expected lectures to be online and face-to-face for a limited number of tutorials or labs for the first term and they made this quite clear.

is that to me @HesterShaw1, bit OTT

my own dd is second year,

I'm a postgrad student at Uni in Scotland, living at home with my family and obviously not the "target market" for shagging freshers and partying. We have just had an all-student email from the University Principal saying:

"We also strongly advise that you should avoid all hospitality venues, such as bars and restaurants, in the coming days, to help break the transmission chain."

Strongly advise. Not "you are banned from". Also lots of stuff about self-isolation. Not much about where you can get support, apart from "online". Pubs in Scotland have to close at 10pm as of tonight anyway, so we'll see what happens over the weekend.

@Rocinante39

It is truly awful for students and they are paying a fortune for it which attracts high interest rates.

I wonder what those on furlough would have thought if the money they received from the government was not a gift but a loan, attracting high interest rates?

It is crap that they are paying/getting in extreme debt for their reduced offering from universities and having poor overpriced housing on top if it, which they can't get out of. Clegg and Cameron have the resentment of millions on their shoulders.

Have to say I'm worried as she's going to feel trapped there. We're a seven hour drive away. If she really needs to come home for her mental health, I'm hoping she won't lose her place as she'll isolate in two rooms here and stay for the foreseeable.

She will be able to access all the teaching from home this term so won't lose her place if she continues to do the course.

I do feel sad for them. I also feel sad for other groups but this thread is about students. Not about other groups.

@Tomatoesneedtoripen

of course they knew, plenty of students deferred, they didnt defer for the hell of it, they knew it would be online learning for at least a term. no one surely had their head in the sand that much to not be aware of the risks.

Right, and what are you going to do for a year if you defer? Get one of those oh so many jobs that are out there?

Some kids would have been lucky to have parents who are able to support them, but what about the others who don't, or were committed to paying rent etc on accomodation?

I would probably have dropped out if this happened when I was at uni. I found it really lonely and went home a lot.

I feel for them but I don’t see them as having it tougher than people who have lost jobs, are struggling to provide for their kids/ might lose their homes/ can’t have cancer treatment or are in abusive relationships.

Yes it’s sad for them but A LOT of people are having it very tough right now. I wouldn’t single them out as unique.

@Belladonna12

Universities actively encouraged students to attend in person knowing full well teaching would be online only, and now that's bitten them (and the government) on the arse, who is getting the blame.

Not true . Universities expected lectures to be online and face-to-face for a limited number of tutorials or labs for the first term and they made this quite clear.

Many - Abertay - for instance were telling students that they should expect face to face learning and so students should be in Dundee.

Higher education is a business. Businesses want bums on seats. That's the long and short of it.

@Tomatoesneedtoripen

there is care work, cleaning work, supermarket work, hospitality has opened up ok they cant travel everywhere.

Can you imagine the stories in the press if significant numbers of 18 year olds decided to defer for a year and took all those care and supermarket jobs?

“Selfish students take jobs away from hardworking parents made redundant by Covid-19”

Young people literally cannot win.

How is this enforceable? How do they physically stop students from going home or to the pub?

I think I'd leave my course and defer until next year, sounds like prison not university.

Not sure if it’s been said, but unis in Scotland went back a week or two earlier than in England, so it’s just a matter of time before similar comes into play across the UK.

The cynic in me thinks it’s all just so they don’t have to make another u-turn by closing universities, but rather make the experience so crap that students go home on their own accord...

They are adults who made the choice, no one forced them

This is a difficult time for everyone really. KeepingPlain So when you were at Uni you didnt enjoy parties then? Clearly the youngsters were just doing what thousands of Students have done for years before! Yes they were unwise ,but why should they have to lose their hard earned places FFS!

Yes but we weren't in a pandemic. If we had been, I wouldn't have partied.

They got told no parties. They couldn't follow one simple rule, so they do deserve to lose their places. That would make them rethink their actions in future.

Again with the online learning thing? Almost every course has a tiny amount of face to face in first year, in order to bring the students onto campus in the first place. Because if the unis offered an online-only first year, most students would have either deferred or chose not to apply, creating a black hole in the books.

The unis, backed by the govt, have set this situation up for their freshers.

I feel heartbroken for students right now. I'm flabbergasted so many have gone ahead, I thought the deferral rate would be sky-high and next year's intake would be stuffed for getting a place anywhere.

Please tell me the unis are doing task master style challenges that they are pitching different halls against each other

I agree @QuimReaper

@Tomatoesneedtoripen

Adults, like tomatoes, need to ripen and mature.

University is one of the ways young adults mature.

University this year and possibly next and who knows for however many more, will be for students like a summer without sun for tomatoes.

That is why most of us feel desperately sorry for university students.

My postgrad is entirely online. But I knew that when I signed up for the course. The course has ALWAYS been delivered online, has been running for about 8 years and feedback from previous students is that the staff are pretty good at it.

That's an entirely different scenario from being promised traditional teaching in lectures and tutorial groups, and then being told that actually, it's not happening and it's online. And the lecturers scrambling about trying to totally re-jig their entire semester's teaching in 10 seconds flat.