The return to university is a timebomb

[Justpassingtime1]

I know these are intelligent people but large numbers in one place
and socialising will be tricky.
Also will the foreign ones actually come?

DM today showed Nottingham freshers off for a booze up (that is what it looks like) loads of them not just groups of 6, all from different homes, all close together - yes it looks worrying if they are already not following the rules.

We have a campus near us. One of my friends is a lecturer there and the mobile testing stations are moving in.

My dd has just started at the local Uni. Loads of pictures of parties in student flats on snapchat at the moment. Packed to the rafters.

Also will the foreign ones actually come?

'foreign ones' really??

You mean international students.

I live in a university town and it's really busy in open spaces with groups of up to 30 gathering. I agree with you OP. While the campus's themselves may be safe it's what happens away from campus that worries me.

Both of my adult daughters live in student areas in different university cities.

In one city the areas with the most cases are in the student areas and she hears large groups of drunk young people go by her house every day.

My other daughter, who also works in the uni, has had a similar experience.

It's very worrying, to say the least.

It's not just unis tho is it. Dd1 left for uni last week and has been following all the guidelines. Dd1 goes to the college down the road and it is ridiculous. There seems to be no social distancing in place. Overcrowded buses driving in eith steamed up windows and a large proportion of teens not wearing masks. It's ridiculous.

@SueEllenMishke

Also will the foreign ones actually come?

'foreign ones' really??

You mean international students.

I made this mistake recently, please can you explain why it is offensive? I had a British national born and bred tell me she could be classed as foreign when I used that word in the context of students (her mum is French). She corrected me saying home and international. Whereas when I worked in a student fees office many years ago we had foreign students who paid different fees. And we have the foreign office etc. I would really like someone to explain it as I obviously caused offence and wouldn’t want to make that mistake again.

Where my son is they have students from
America, Poland and Germany.

Also will the foreign ones actually come?

My husband teaches at a university. All his first year tutees this year are from overseas. They are already here, quarantining ready for the start of term.

It's using 'ones' that made it sound offensive and rude ....

The standard term is international students but even foreign students would have been better.

Ah ok, I said foreign students, she’s a linguist so I’m still trying to figure out if it was pedantry or racism, I felt like I’d been offensive though.

I feel so sorry for the freshers this year.

I live near a university city that's normally packed with students on a Friday and Saturday night. There's no way when they've had a few drinks they're all just going to say toodle-oo and trot off back to their student digs for an early night.

'foreign ones' is othering, but OP I agree with everything else you've said!

I made this mistake recently, please can you explain why it is offensive? I had a British national born and bred tell me she could be classed as foreign when I used that word in the context of students (her mum is French). She corrected me saying home and international.

It's just a question of which term is offensive at the moment. There is no particular rhyme or reason.

A good example of this is black, coloured and person of colour. Which is deemed offensive depends entirely on who is saying it and in which context. I had assumed that coloured was always offensive as it sounds like something from apartheid s. africa but then I was told about The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)[ in the US.

It's just best to be ready to apologise I find :)

Enlighten me. How is 'ones' offensive or rude?

It is a differentiator. Native students or foreign ones? Tabby cats or ginger ones? Pedantic statements or rude ones?

Must we analyse everyone's vocabulary when no offence was meant?

It is worth mentioning that within university circles, international students doesn't mean students from abroad. It specifically means students from outside the EU (and UK) as they pay a lot more in fees.

@Tonkerbea

'foreign ones' is othering, but OP I agree with everything else you've said!

It's one up from the use of 'alien' I suppose - used by eg US immigration.

Anyway, according to this piece in the Times today, some unis are chartering planes, and there will be a record number of Chinese students. They're choosing the U.K. over the US because of Trump, more or less.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/british-universities-charter-jets-to-fly-in-chinese-students-0p3775rr2?shareToken=ecd16f20e16095844f2805d6b462e44f

@Deelish75 what campus is that please?

Also will the foreign ones actually come?

Amazingly, and definitely not what I would have guessed, it seems yes.

I'm an aged postgrad student about to start next week.

I had a very firm email from the Principal yesterday outlining the law about social distancing and reminding me that attending a student party was a criminal offence.

Chance would be a fine thing.

I had a very firm email from the Principal yesterday outlining the law about social distancing and reminding me that attending a student party was a criminal offence.

Fascinating. Can you say which uni?

International students are in and isolating in my daughters Welsh University they might be housing them separately ish this year instead of completing integrating them they have a lot on online work and very little tutor time because they are separating them into smaller groups so it lessons the risk my daughter and her housemates are forming a social bubble

I am really not looking forward to spending hours in a classroom with people who are having huge drunken parties, in the full knowledge that there is already an outbreak on my campus two weeks before term even starts. Contrary to popular belief many of us are still doing the same amount of face to face teaching as before. More, in fact, as lots of our colleagues on temporary contracts have been made redundant.