University students

[Lysianthus]

Slight panic in Lysi Towers tonight. DD has been home for a week, but all her stuff including some dissertation papers is in Uni (3 hour train journey).
We can’t find any information yet but we’re thinking she has to go and collect all her books etc. She’ll keep her tenancy until August anyway, so we’re not moving her out, but can she class this as essential travel? Anyone else in the same situation ?
I’m NHS so the idea of driving her there and back is a non-starter. She’ll have to take the train but she’s now really worried about the police. I’ve told her that if she travels off peak it’s going to be v quiet on the train (the train was empty last week) and she can move away from other people if necessary. The police are not going to be targeting someone on their own, are they?
Any advice gratefully received, thank you, and keep safe everyone.

I don't think that's classed as essential, maybe others will disagree.

can she rent a car & drive there?

She should take the advice of her university. Ours were told to go home and prepare for remote online teaching. She really shouldn’t travel - it’s not essential travel, and if she’s in touch with her tutors and dissertation supervisor to explain, they’ll give her guidance. I’ve just spent all of today talking to students online to look at where they are with their work and how they can adjust things in these new circumstances.

Indeed, it may be difficult for her to get access to anything on her campus. Mine will be completely closed from Wednesday. If we need to go to our offices, we have to put in a request and it’s vetted by security services to see if it’s essential. Most requests won’t be. The only on campus work permitted us to do with COVID-19 and essential maintenance and security.

But she really shouldn’t travel.

Thanks @FlockofGulls. I’m going to see if she can last at home for three weeks if we ask her housemate to send her papers in the post. It’s do-able but we’re all getting our heads round it in a rapidly changing situation. And I’ll get her to talk to her tutor too.

Her university should have sent emails daily (well, mine has) to staff & students summarising the action we're taking, reassuring finalists, directing students towards help & assistance & advice.

We started this planning about 3 weeks ago at my place. The university sent all students home from last Tuesday, and the flow of information has been constant ever since. My colleagues have worked very fast & efficiently to set up easy-to-use platforms for face to fae individual & group communication for tutorials, lectures, and seminars.

So tell your DD to read her university emails. If it's a halfway decent university/department, there will be several or many emails, but she needs to work through them.

Since Monday last week, I've been in touch with my 1st years, my personal tutees and my Finalists whose dissertations I'm supervising. I have a packed schedule this week (on a late lunch break atm) of one to one supervisions.

Plus they have Library liaison people - at my place, these colleagues are working remotely but doing their best to advise students in terms of finding resources online, and digitising materials where they can.

There will be a lot of support, but your DD needs to make contact. I find the biggest frustration is that undergrads ignore their university emails. It's pretty clear from last night's PM announcement that she must not travel - it's not essential, and her university should be communicating with her regularly about how she will manage. It's not as if we don't know what's going on - these things will al be taken into account in our examination of students in the Summer TErm.

Collection materials for a dissertation that needs to be handed in would be essential travel akin to work, so I'd tell her to go and fetch them.

In any event, the police currently have no powers to enforce any restrictions and I highly doubt we'll ever get to a stage where we have police officers interrogating every train passenger anyway. We have nowhere near the numbers that would be necessary to do that.

Collection materials for a dissertation that needs to be handed in would be essential travel akin to work

No, it's really not, especially if there's a housemate who can post them. This is the thinking that will get us all into more stringent lockdown restrictions.

Students were asked to leave most campuses last week - she should have taken what she needed then. If she is without some materials, she will have to adjust her topic and her work accordingly. This is why contact with her tutors is essential. We are expert at guiding students through this sort of thing.

Most essential reading for undergrads is digitised for teaching purposes, and most universities spend hundreds of thousands of pounds each year on digital database subscriptions and electronic books and journals (where quite a bit of the tuition fee goes).

I have dissertation students who planned to use archives which are now shut. I am working with them to realign and reorient their work. It's what we do all the time as researchers.

And all universities will have mitigation and adjustment procedures in place, and senior management teams are working daily to adjust assessment and examination processes over the next couple of months, to account for the circumstances under which we are all living.

Stay at home.

If she is without some materials, she will have to adjust her topic and her work accordingly.

Nope- people can still travel to work 'if the work cannot be carried out from home'. That is not the same as only allowing essential work.

A dissertation that will contribute to a degree classification is not the same as a year 7 essay. Clearly, the OP's dd should carry out the research etc from home, but if materials need to be accessed that are essential to the dissertation being carried out, that is perfectly acceptable under the current guidelines.

There are no actual restrictions on anyone going to work.

And I have to disagree with your point that she could just discuss the issue with her supervisor. My DS is doing his dissertation at the moment and his uni have made it very clear that he has his three allocated meetings throughout the year with a tutor and that is it. There is to be no further contact either in person or by email.

Sorry i dont think thats essential either :(
I'm sorry, she must be feeling really stressed hanging in the middle :(

It is absolutely essential, as many universities are still requiring submission of dissertations and other coursework.

If the university were to cancel all future submissions, getting the materials would not be necessary. But as they haven't, it is just as essential as going to work (if not even more so).

@StormyClouds do you teach at a university? If not, on what basis are you stating that this is essential travel. It is not

Undergrad dissertations are not like key workers etc. And anyone who is not a key worker should be working from home.

I can assure you that universities are adjusting daily & transparently to situations exactly like these for students. Mine announced yesterday to students they will implement a "No detriment" policy - any work submitted/assessed/examined after yesterday's lockdown will not cause a student's average mark to drop below that which is already attained. Most universities I know of are doing much the same thing, and my colleagues across the world are working on ways to support students.

So I suggest unless you are a university teacher with a fair bit of experience and knowledge of the national picture, you stop giving bad advice.

And anyone who is not a key worker should be working from home.

That is a fundamental misunderstanding of the government advice. Anyone who cannot work from home can attend work, not just key workers. Briefly retrieving dissertation materials is akin to that.

And I am well aware that many universities are making provision for the disruption, but this is not universal. My DS studies law and he has been told that while exams will be online, everything will be assessed as normal, despite the fact there is no access to course textbooks or other materials.

The OP has already come to a sensible solution in her post at 7:09

Of course her DD shouldn't sit on a train for 3 hours (each way?) when there's someone who can post the material to her. Of course she should let her tutor know about this disruption.

Indeed, Errol but some people don’t get it.