To think what's happening to student is discrimination against poorer young people.

[Feelingconfused2020]

Students are young, in many cases just 18 yet many are being asked to isolate in a room for 2 weeks with issues around access to food and no real friends or family around them (because they've just got there and live with strangers) arguably prison is a safer place as at least food supply is guaranteed. In Scotland they've already been told they won't be allowed home at Christmas which is beyond absurd.

So what is going to happen? Inevitably families with enough money will encourage their young people to drop out and take a gap year. Those who can't afford to do so will be stuck at uni. The poorest suffer most, as covid seems to prefer.

It's not ok for Nicola Sturgeon, and other leaders, to stand by and let this happen, there will be suicides, there will be incidents related to mental health issues.

The governments all needed to have predicted this would be an issue, they should have put more strategies in place as they have in schools.

I am so cross for young adults in this country, they have been completely disregarded by all our governments.

I think younger adults have been disproportionately affected by the restrictions & lockdown, but no one cares.

I have wasted a formative adult year of my life at 22-23 as my life has essentially been placed on hold. I graduated in 2018 but haven’t been able to have the same career progression as those who graduated earlier, my finances are shot thanks to furlough/risk of redundancy, landlords haven’t been great as per, it’s isolating WFH etc.

I think when you’re much older you probably are already established in your career, probably have your own house and children, so lockdown may have had its benefits for you. When you’re older, I don’t think every passing year is as formative as a year from your early 20s. It is a shit stage of your life to experience this.

I feel so sorry for this year’s students. Their university experience seems quite lonely, the complete opposite of freshers which I’m sure many of us have fond memories of.

They are not being asked to risk their lives fighting a war or even to have to go out and work until they are 21 or older.

Yawn. Just because they aren’t going to war, doesn’t mean this is an easy thing to deal with. For anyone. Stop boring on about the war. Comparison is meaningless.

We are getting far too many people to do degrees with zero value.

Of course, you have statistics to back up this assertion. No. Thought not.

But the Universities seem to have put zero effort in

Totally untrue and unfair. A close friend who is a senior university professor and her staff have worked round the clock for months trying to sort through everything and make sure the students are getting the best they can offer in the circumstances. And often just with a few days notice of changes by the government. It's a logistical nightmare for them.

Both my boys have gone back to uni although not in halls and both report that things are weird but fine. Friends who have first timers in halls are reporting the same. A mix of online and FTC for all of them so far.

Also why are poor people more affected? My income has dropped significantly since my two first started so the amount of maintenance loan has more than doubled, it's not costing me anymore. In fact I'm better off since when my income was greater I was expected to top them up by considerable sums.

As it happens I do think that the 12-20 yr olds have been the most affected by the situation in terms of disruption to their lives and I have lots of sympathy for them. But this is an unprecedented situation that doesn't yet have a final outcome and all we can do is get on with it the best that we can. I also think that, for some young people, the way the adults around them deal with it will have a big effect on how they do too.

It’s horrendous for students at the moment, especially the first years. If I had a child at university I would be extremely worried about them. The treat of not being able to see family for Christmas may well be the final straw for many. I remember my first year and knowing I was going home for Christmas kept me going that first term.

I think universities need to think about how they are going to handle this, as they will have a huge drop out rate if they’re not careful.

Well said frappo. Even if you are skint, When you are older most people have a home, Kids, skills, a social network and a sense of where they are in life, lockdown Is easier than when you have nothing, and are trying to find your way. Younger people’s lives are about friends and socialising in a way that more settled people’s are not. I wish the older politicians would recognise that as they ban everything they deem not important.

I think universities need to think about how they are going to handle this, as they will have a huge drop out rate if they’re not careful.

Good idea... I'm not sure any of us have thought of this before 🙄🙄

Opening halls was a massive mistake with very predictable consequences (a number of halls are now in effective lockdowns across the UK). The idea that the students will now be expected to isolate away from their families over Christmas as proposed in Scotland just shows this was an error. It is a completely unreasonable request and will be ignored by many I should think.

But, university senior leaders only care about the money so that is why it has happened. At least the students now see how low they are valued by these people, just like the staff.

@Hopoindown31

Opening halls was a massive mistake with very predictable consequences (a number of halls are now in effective lockdowns across the UK). The idea that the students will now be expected to isolate away from their families over Christmas as proposed in Scotland just shows this was an error. It is a completely unreasonable request and will be ignored by many I should think.

But, university senior leaders only care about the money so that is why it has happened. At least the students now see how low they are valued by these people, just like the staff.

This is mainly due to government policy .... the vast majority of blame should be laid at their feet not universities.

But the Universities seem to have put zero effort in

Oh do bog off. We had to unexpectedly teach online and graduate all of last year's cohort remotely, through online exams. Without any warning. We then spent the summer trying to get the campus and the IT systems (which now have 10x as many students accessing them at once) ready for an unknown situation- we prepared for all eventualities, face to face, mixed and online. We then, at the last minute, took more students than ever due to the fact that most have decided uni is better than deferring- which was the opposite of what was predicted. Plus coping with the fall out of the A level debacle.

Then, last week on a Tue evening, the threat level changed and we had to suddenly change the timetables of up to 25,000 students who now needed to have less risky contact. Plus responding to small outbreaks of covid as they occur on the campus.

My colleagues are frikkin miracle workers!

@Feelingconfused2020

So the strategies I am suggesting are wide ranging and far from novel. For example:

DON'T have a party at a pub/bar( this has reportedly been something that Glasgow uni arranged for its Freshers)

Keep uni drinking venues closed for now. No student unions bars open.

Provide hand sanitiser in each hall on each floor etc.

Have wardens checking for parties in halls/flats.

Have the uni organise food supplies for isolating students.

Organise students in smaller bubbles by considering where they live (if you are studying maths you should live with maths students so there's no bubble mixing)

Organise testing centres near to campus as many students don't have cars (I heard a woman on the radio saying her friends had to use public transport to get to a testing venue. This is ludicrous!)

There are probably loads more too. I have no objection to the idea students can't go to the pub this weekend. I do object to the idea they can't go home for Christmas and I hate hearing 18 year olds saying they can't get food. These are the same young people who didn't get their proper A-levels. They've had a tough time. The government has departments whose job it is to care about universities. Why didn't they think about this and pre plan? Why didn't they imagine some students might be self isolating with no friends to buy food for them.

My university has done all of this and more

Most unies I know of have done this.

What they couldn't do, was to stop the students from illegal house parties...

You have no crystal ball any more than I do

You don’t need a crystal ball to know how a severe economic downturn can affect the younger generations throughout their lives, history teaches us that it is so. It stands to reason that if school leavers have little opportunity to develop their skills and careers in their twenties, fewer good job opportunities and an inability to get on the housing ladder, they will find it harder to develop these later in life as the system isn’t set up to enable them to do so.

We have lost generations of entire areas impacted by things like pit, steel and shipyard closures. There is the lost generation ahead of mine now who left school in the 70s and early 80s and had no opportunity whatsoever. They won’t have private pensions now and the generations after mine will be the ones who have to work much longer, getting less help, in order to help take care of them.

Of course some will thrive and do well, that’s always the case, but there will inevitably be many who won’t just bounce back from the double impact of Covid and Brexit and will be carrying the financial burden of all of this for a lot longer.

There is no crystal ball, but there is also no magic bullet. Coming out of recession is hard, especially when you never really recovered from the last one. It isn’t doom and gloom to say that, it is an economic reality.

What they couldn't do, was to stop the students from illegal house parties...

It is a easy media led stereotype to blame this on wild student parties. Speaking to students, many have said actually, where they were there were no big wild parties, but they still have cases in their halls.

I'm not convinced money has much to do with it, all students are getting a shit deal at the moment.

@HamishDent

It’s horrendous for students at the moment, especially the first years. If I had a child at university I would be extremely worried about them. The treat of not being able to see family for Christmas may well be the final straw for many. I remember my first year and knowing I was going home for Christmas kept me going that first term.

I think universities need to think about how they are going to handle this, as they will have a huge drop out rate if they’re not careful.

I presume that was a typo and you meant threat rather than treat?👀 but for many people it WILL be a TREAT not to see family at Christmas I'm sure 🥳🤭

@MintyMabel

What they couldn't do, was to stop the students from illegal house parties...

It is a easy media led stereotype to blame this on wild student parties. Speaking to students, many have said actually, where they were there were no big wild parties, but they still have cases in their halls.

I wasn't basing it on media. I was basing it on student group chats. Not all cases are because of that, of course! But it really doesn't help. It has calmed down now

But it really doesn't help.

But cases would still have spiked without them.

I'm not convinced money has much to do with it, all students are getting a shit deal at the moment.

Like everything else, these problems are easier to overcome if you have money, or parents with money who can help solve it. PP up thread organised an online shop for her child. Not everyone can do that.

Please don't forget about students that don't have a home to go back to. Or those that are finally away from abusive households. Not everyone who is at university wants to leave at all.

Like everything else, these problems are easier to overcome if you have money, or parents with money who can help solve it. PP up thread organised an online shop for her child. Not everyone can do that.

Students with better off parents get a higher loan (about 9k as opposed to 4k for students on the lowest rate, depending where they are on the scale) so I'm sure they can order their own online shop if it's access to food that's an issue.

P.S. I am not in any way underestimating the shit that ALL students are going through at the moment

If they ask them to stay at university over Christmas it's difficult to see how they would enforce this, especially for those living out. Some people live miles from the university, even in different towns. Some don't even live with other students. And for those on college/hall rent agreements which are termly, an additional 4 weeks'' rent would be required.

Minty,

In nearly every decade GDP per capita has risen. We invent more, we manufacture more efficiently etc.

There are issues with inequality both by class/job and geographically. However, I would assume our children will end up, on average, richer than us.

Sorry, I meant with worse off parents....

I don't quite get the rationale that students won't be able to go home at Christmas if they party now. Christmas is months away. If there really is a huge increase in infections in the next few weeks they would probably be immune by Christmas.