University students...did Boris say students will not be sent home who have tested positive and are ill with COVID

[TenhillPlace]

Trying to work through that one.
So my fresher DC, first time way from home, tests positive and is quite ill...so who takes are of them? Genuine question...

The majority of uni students will be a very mild illness. However if tested positive they must self isolate. Very very few need treatment.
If you take them home you risk spreading it.

Does seem bizarre tho...no more than 6 people to meet inside or out...yet a large group of strangers can all move in together.

I'm not sure student welfare will get checking on all those in private houses, but I guess their housemates might be more aware of them than in halls.

I mean .... they are adults though and I’m sure they will keep in touch. Maybe there flatmates will make the chicken noodle soup!

Most students who are ill with covid will have a very mild illness

Students do tend to pull together surprisingly well to help each other

What a mess! Not sure who will be looking after my DC with Covid and isolating with 600 others. Waiting to find out about the provision of food.

I'd not even considered Christmas until Matt Hancock has just been asked on BBC. Seems there's a possibility that isolating students won't be able to come home at Christmas - common sense, but not something we'd thought through.

I am struggling to see why this is surprising to be honest. If someone tests positive with covid then they should stay put really.

Matt Hancock has just indicated on bbc news that university students may be asked to remain on campus over christmas. He is ruling nothing out

@Blossomgate

My DD is in that cluster as well. Though she’s not in the main halls mentioned.

@harridan50

Wonder how that would work with one of my dds as on a 31 week contract and has to leave for Christmas and Easter, empty her room etc.

The way students have been treated is appalling. To ask them to come to campuses when the vast majority of teaching is online. To charge them accommodation costs they didn't need to incur. And then to say its too risky to allow them home for Christmas????? Why is it too risky for them to go home at Christmas if it was safe for them to come back to campuses?

I really feel for them - its a shit show

@TenhillPlace

Who cares for them? Seriously? They're adults. This is no different to another adult living on their own

Scottish, so just turned 17.
Yep maybe an adult, but a harsh comment..I said working through the thinking...
As others have helpfully offered, universities are putting in place arrangements to care for students...thankfully they must think that adult students might need support.

It’s not harsh at all, university students do not need parents looking after them when they’re unwell like a young child does - you are babying them. Unless vulnerable to COVID-19, the symptoms are manageable enough to not necessitate 24/7 care from parents.

Yes, 17 year olds aren’t officially adults, but they’re functionally not that different from 18 year olds.

I think if the adult isn’t able to cope with an illness they aren’t ready for university. I expect most are and it’s their parent who isn’t able to cope with them being ill.

The overwhelming number of students will have a mild or moderate experience of the disease. There is no need to move them around the country to cause danger to others.

More serious cases can be treated at home with welfare and NHS support. Like any single adult. But they have added resources at university.

The seriously ill will be hospitalised. You won’t be able to visit anyway.

Let your adult child grow up and mature. That’s why they are at university. It’s not about your anxiety.

Depends how sick obviously

I absolutely agree ‘heavy Cold’ type symptoms, bit wobbly etc then probably safer and easier where they are

But dd was very ill in march, she needed a lot of help. If dh and I had been that ill we would have needed the help as well as my dad

It is shit. It’s definitely messing with one of my daughters mental health. Everything this year has been taken away from them. And now University is a cluster fuck which could have been predicted.

The unis need their pound of flesh. Lives shit and going downhill rapidly

The government is a total cluster fuck and has no clue about how to do anything other than fuck up, lie, cheat, bluff, blame and repeat.

18 is an adult I agree, but they’re a young adult and its usually their first time living away from home.

My fiercely independent DD who is very capable and just gets on with things generally, rang us in tears a few weeks after starting uni last year. Had a shocking sore throat and enlarged glands and just wanted to be at home for a few days. DH drove up to get her straight away - 8 hour round trip. That’s just what you do regardless of age! They’re still our kids.

Isn't half the point of going to university to bridge the gap between being cared for and learning to care for oneself?

It has been awful for students. Last year teaching was broken up through strikes and the lockdown. Modules cancelled. Rent had to be paid for the whole year, even though mine came back home before lockdown. Mine has gone back for her third year. Still no idea what is happening regarding her course. She expects it to be all online.

My 17 year old uni student had COVID recently, he stayed in his campus accommodation. No way he was coming home! If they are old enough to live away from home they are old enough to manage mild illness on their own.

If it's not mild then you cross that bridge when you come to it.

They will have to look after themselves like any other adult, and hopefully flat mates will drop food, things to do off outside their room. DD had an emergency operation in her first year (physically couldn't travel) and she had to cope. Her friends went out and got her food. We happened to be there when she was taken ill (660 miles away), DH had to get back for work, I stayed on three days - she clearly didn't want me around as it was more fun having her friends visit even if she couldn't move

Isn't the point of going to uni to grow up and not be parented in the same way?
If your dc isn't ready to live away from home then that different, and they should come home and study with the OU or locally.
If they stay at Uni they will be surrounded by people who will help them if they are ill, they will have the internet and people will make sure they have food and are a comfortable as possible.

Unless they (or you) suffer from anxiety (or a serious medical condition only you can help with) I can't see why they would need to come home and spread the virus unnecessarily?

My ds got Covid back in late February in Birmingham. He was in halls. Even though we were being told he wasn’t at risk of it because he hadn’t been to China we knew it was Covid. The doctor has since confirmed it must have been. His flat mates left him food outside the door and we communicated by text. There were two days where he thought he might need to go to hospital he felt so ill. His flat mates were on standby. But he pulled through in a week. I felt so upset not being able to be there for him but they’re young and for the majority they will manage just fine.

@TenhillPlace

Does seem bizarre tho...no more than 6 people to meet inside or out...yet a large group of strangers can all move in together.

its all about the fees and rent isn't it!

I agree with you Eve, they've been shafted!

Look at the numbers in isolation and PP's still think all of these young people can look after themselves in isolation...nearly 2000 in Manchester.

Scottish students in first year are quite often only 17.