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?

Strathclyde in Glasgow. Freshers back onto campus this last week. We are under extra restrictions in Glasgow though and one household (defined as a student flat) isn't supposed to be mixing socially with any other households/flats.

Oh and to clarify - the Principal didn't email me personally to give me a telling-off. It was a blanket all student email.

I'm sure the university return is a timebomb in some ways but short of not educating an entire cohort, what else can we do with them? They can't all stay home with their parents, and if they do that, and still socialize, then they are spreading it back to the generations.

Our campus is surprisingly safe and surprisingly quiet. We have limited numbers on campus for teaching, very limited this week, and although many students have come back to the town, many have not, I have had a lot of emails from students who are ill and not traveling, quarantining right now (come from outside UK), decided to do online study which is an option they can take, or some other reason they are not coming onto campus.

I feel more confident we can deliver safe teaching on our campus than my kids are getting currently in our schools, by far. We have a testing hub, private tests, it's much much better than the free for all of the school bus and no masked classrooms. Out of school/uni property is the issue and not entirely solvable, although we could just insist no-one under the age of 25 goes out, I am not a fan of this for mental health and other reasons.

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.

The figure in The Times only refers to those Chinese students who have accepted offers. Simply accepting an offer doesn't mean you're going to take it up.

In my uni, enrollment by international - mostly Chinese - students was down by over 50%. And many of these students may decide to defer or even give up their place if travel is difficult and/or it looks as though much of their course will be taught online. So I'd be surprised if the number of Chinese students in British unis was anything close to a record number - unfortunately it's likely to be well down on previous years.

I also think it is a ticking time bomb. "Freshers flu" is bad enough when in lectures at the start of term you can barely hear the lecturer as there is constant coughing, clearing of throats, sneezing and sniffling.

However, I graduated last year so was fortunate enough to have a normal university experience. I really sympathise with students having their student experience and education affected by COVID. However I think the desire to have a "normal" university experience (especially the first years) as well as the general way you feel almost immortal when you are young will lead to outbreaks. I studied a science subject where there would be 100+ students in a large teaching lab, no idea how they will manage to safely run those...

You say they're 'intelligent people'. Honestly, when I went to university, I found that although the people there were clearly academically able, they were actually incredibly immature, as they were of course still teenagers! Most of them have literally only just hit adulthood, and this is their first experience of freedom .. so it is a worry, as they will of course WANT this freedom, without worrying about 1,000 new rules coming into play every 5 minutes.

It's a ticking time bomb I think, and we might just get over the worst of it when they finish for Christmas and they then travel the country again!

[quote FascinatingCarrot]@Deelish75 what campus is that please?[/quote]
University of Kent.

Apparently there’s been a testing centre on or near to its main campus in Canterbury for a couple of weeks now, but they’ve started to roll out to other campuses in the county.

One of my DC is having a nightmare.

Final year student sharing a house with friends of 3 years and none of them apart from him, could care less about social distancing, rules of 6 etc.
Pub crawls every night, bringing other students back to the house with no regard for actions and consequences.
He says it’s the perpetual bloody hugging that they all do, that’s driving him round the bend.

He feels resigned to it but is incredibly disappointed in the behaviour of his housemates.
He loves to party but is spending lots of time in his room to avoid the worst of it.

@SueEllenMishke

Also will the foreign ones actually come?

'foreign ones' really??

You mean international students.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with referring to foreign students. It is not offensive. Foreign just means native to a community other than your own.

If I was in another country and someone there referred to me as a foreign tourist, that would be correct (and not remotely offensive). Ffs!

I live opposite brand new student accommodation which is typically full of Chinese students. Not a single one occupying a room there currently. Completely empty.

It's a nightmare for the students. No extracurricular activities, very little contact time but the same fees.

DD is in a house of 6, committed to before the pandemic in early January. One visitor or a boyfriend overnight and they're breaking the law. I fear that the curfew will drive things underground even more.

[quote Itsabeautifuldayheyhey]**@SueEllenMishke

Also will the foreign ones actually come?

'foreign ones' really??

You mean international students.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with referring to foreign students. It is not offensive. Foreign just means native to a community other than your own.

If I was in another country and someone there referred to me as a foreign tourist, that would be correct (and not remotely offensive). Ffs![/quote]
Foreign students is fine

Foreign ones - not so fine. As a pp says it's very Othering

How is it worse than the many people still taking holidays within the UK (and for foreign students, holidays abroad)?
Those things are still possible and legal.
The motorway near me was almost stationary on Saturday morning due to the huge volume of traffic heading on domestic holidays in a popular tourist area.
Foreign students will be subject to the same quarantine rules as British holidaymakers and business travellers.

I live in a University town. All the University office staff have been told to WFH until January. The campus is apparently very quiet and they are enforcing covid safety measures rigourously which is great but, as my lecturer friend points out, students are then going to ditch the on-campus bars in favour of going into town where they will not socially distance. Students not in halls are still having house parties (lots of moaning on local FB groups from people living near student houses) and this will increase of anything once the pubs have to shut early. We have already had positive cases in the two sixth form colleges in our town and it doesn't seem to have stopped young people meeting up in large groups.

The rule breakers will be the ones who are noticed. Meanwhile, many students will be like my 4th year DD and her housemates - being careful about social distancing etc because they really don't want their final year to be any more fucked up than necessary. They're glad to be there, with each other, hopefully able to do their final year projects - not stuck at home in their childhood bedroom doing exams, tutorials and simulations instead of real lab work etc online like the summer term.

Where my DC is going they're testing them for COVID weekly.

It's inevitable. How many of us met spouses, or friends for life at university? Had experiences we remember for decades?

But this generation are being told to put up with an entirely shit situation, largely to protect people who have voted their futures away. Frankly I'm astounded so many of them do seem to care. Maybe the older generations will remember this next time student debt or Brexit is discussed. Doubt it though.

Not looking great.

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/87-coronavirus-cases-confirmed-university-18975192

@MrsTerryPratchett

It's inevitable. How many of us met spouses, or friends for life at university? Had experiences we remember for decades?

But this generation are being told to put up with an entirely shit situation, largely to protect people who have voted their futures away. Frankly I'm astounded so many of them do seem to care. Maybe the older generations will remember this next time student debt or Brexit is discussed. Doubt it though.

💯

'Oh, they're so selfish!' 'They don't socially distance!' C'mon, they're human beings.

40k students are arriving in my city as we speak (two universities in the city and several in nearby cities). We're in local lockdown. How the two tally I have absolutely no clue.