University students possibly told to stay at uni over Christmas

[WearyandBleary]

This has just been leaked and Matt Hancock has done a non-denial.

This has shocked me. Why not tell old people to stay at home over Christmas instead? The mental health of our students is going to be horrific.

Interesting chart comparing the schools versus universities.

I guess they can hardly imprison primary school children at school!

In teaching other people's children, albeit younger, all day every day. There is no SDjng - they're little, they are literally touching you most of the day.

Even as a clinically vulnerable person I'll take the risk with my own 18y, just like I have no choice but to take the risk with other people's children daily.

Dowden is gearing the parents of uni students up to blame it on the rest of the public. Dont fall for it.

Agree - students are being lined up as scapegoats and to distract from serious failings on testing/tracing/schools.

I'm teaching 60 17/18 year olds tomorrow- face to face in cramped rooms. No masks. Yet it's my DDs fault at Uni that it's spreading. Utter codswallop.

Agree - students are being lined up as scapegoats and to distract from serious failings on testing/tracing/schools.

Classic Cummings playbook. But they have miscalculated. Their older supporters actively want to see their Grandchildren at Christmas.

And I just watched ITV News which just showed a bunch of perfectly lovely 17-18 year old students in Glasgow effectively trapped in buildings trying to make the best of it, and they were very sympatico. Unlike Cummings, Gove and Johnson.

There are plenty of people in the dept of Education, Unis and PHE are being paid lots and lots of money to think about and plan for this sort of thing.

I am hugely sympathetic to all the DP's and DC's caught up in this, but I find it hard to believe that so many universities simply focussed on quarantining overseas students and didn't wonder what would happen if 1,000s of students all converged from around the country after 2-3 months of Joe Public being able to travel all over the place on holiday without any obvious enforcement of quarantine rules.

Halls of Residence are becoming the terra-firma equivalent of the cruise ship transmission experiment petri-dishes of the Spring. I wonder whether the 2021 student intake will be more inclined to study locally and commute (like they do in so many other countries) unless they enrol at an elite Uni?

To me the point here is why were students encouraged to travel and start Uni ?
Did no one think that CV spread would increase and we'd be where we are now? Or didn't they give a shit and just want the money?

Its criminally unfair what is happening now, students short of food, can't use communal facilities, denied face to face teaching AND paying around 14 to 15k for this privilege and it won't end here, 2nd and 3rd year students in private rented will be next.

Meanwhile the riverside Cornish village i walked past this evening, is packed, with 100s of people drinking and very little SD but thats all ok.

@MyPersona

Uni is about the social experience and the extra-curricular opportunities as much as getting a degree. Many people meet their partners at uni. My DD is in a 6 bed house, if anyone has someone stay over they're breaking the law. Christmas would just be the final nail in the coffin.

Presumably she’s there for longer than this one term? Like 3 or 4 years?

Not for my daughter. For her it’s about training for a profession she loves.

@OverTheRainbowLiesOz

Agree - students are being lined up as scapegoats and to distract from serious failings on testing/tracing/schools.

Classic Cummings playbook. But they have miscalculated. Their older supporters actively want to see their Grandchildren at Christmas.

I agree.

My parents and MIL are furious about the treatment of students, and have all been very vocal in their concerns over it and over the fact that DD is being threatened with having to stay in her student flat over Christmas. All three would be willing to drive over and collect her themselves and risk the wrath of the Government, fines, etc to do so.

comefromaway- I can guess from your user name what that is! DD has the same ambitions. She went to uni first to gain experience in extra curricular drama/ go to Edinburgh and then do a postgrad. Her last show was cancelled as was the Fringe.

Meanwhile DD1 was made redundant from her role in the industry and many of her performer/creative friends are struggling- with the usual backups of waitressing/bar work in short supply . Final year agent showcases have been hugely compromised. It's not ideal for any student.

Universities can’t afford not to take students, and students can’t afford to take a year out and look for temporary jobs that now don’t exist. Meanwhile thousands of freshers are sitting in their rooms wondering what the hell they’ve got into. Freshers’ Week via Zoom - ridiculous.

I think the government have underestimated the reaction to the total lack of care and consideration given to uni students. I hope they feel the backlash in the next few days, they have totally sold them down the river. It is not only the students that are unhappy, it’s parent, grandparents etc. Seeing students isolating in halls with no access to food and their parents having to travel with food is beyond acceptable.

@DonnaDonna01

I think the government have underestimated the reaction to the total lack of care and consideration given to uni students. I hope they feel the backlash in the next few days, they have totally sold them down the river. It is not only the students that are unhappy, it’s parent, grandparents etc. Seeing students isolating in halls with no access to food and their parents having to travel with food is beyond acceptable.

^This

Dowden is a typical Tory Cuxt... i'm alright jack, you can all Fxxk off.

My daughter has been at uni for a week, and suffers with anxiety. She hasn’t been to any parties or pubs, as she just doesn’t enjoy them. She’s just generally anxious anyway. She’s made a couple of friends in different halls. There is no way she will stay there for Christmas- especially as her birthday falls in the Christmas holidays too.
I do not see how they can enforce this? What about the thousands of students who have 30 week contracts? They have to vacate their room at Christmas and Easter. Many of those live there because they cannot afford to pay more accommodation fees. What spreads more infection - students commuting to university daily/weekly, or students returning home once every 3 months??!
there is a way around it. They could go home for a day near the end of term, say they have to isolate, and not go back until after Christmas. I’m not one for lying at all, but in this case I would make an exception. There mental health is already suffering.

In March, just before lockdown, my (final year) ds had to quarantine in his student house for 14 days as one of his housemates had symptoms. After 14 days, a week after lockdown, I went to collect him from his house to home where he's been ever since. This was allowed under lockdown as it was deemed for care giving purposes. Why is this not allowed now? I'm sure the virus was much more prevalent then!

I genuinely hope should this happen, all the students fucking ignore him. This is just getting ridiculous now.

@HeresMe

Security stopping the students from leaving, surely they have no legal right , only the police do.

Locking 1000s of students away is a scary day for civil liberties.

I can't make any sense of how they can get away with this, and its rather concerning.

Boris is getting away with it because while they’ve been trying to make us concentrate on the various confusing rules, eat out to help out etc he has made it so he and his inner circle can do exactly what they want without putting it through parliament.

Gavin Williamson giving a statement at 12:30 in Commons.

Where is the NUS on all this? Back in the day they would have been vocal about the injustice and rights of students! Seem to have no bite now.

@LIZS thanks for that, I wonder if we could access that live or it will be an update in the news afterwards?

Will be live on BBC Parliament (Sky 504, Freeview 232)