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.

It seems very unlikely as they aren't required to be in any particular accommodation or even in the same city as the university.

@user1471588124

How much more can they expect young people to give up, while simultaneously blaming them for everything?

.. and this is a cohort who is facing a mountain of debt, no jobs , the ability to get jobs in Europe restricted and now effectively banning them from their homes and families.

I don't see how it could be enforced.

Quite frankly I would totally ignore this directive.

I heard this on the radio this morning.

I wondered if the rumour of "students not being allowed home for Christmas" is step one towards the "actual" plan which would be: If there is a risk of transmitting the virus, then a quarantine period resolves that risk. Most University terms end in the first week of December, so students do have time to self-isolate for 2 weeks between the end of term and Christmas Day. Obviously that won't be a popular activity, but let the idea of "not being allowed home for Christmas" percolate around for a bit, and then "either don't go home at all for Christmas, or choose to self-quarantine from 9th-23rd December if you want to go home on the 24th" makes it seem a more palatable option?

However a significant proportion of students don't live "on campus" at all - they either live at home with their families or in private-let HMO-housing which is just normal houses on normal streets mixed in with the non-student population so I can't see how any such ruling would be universally applied.

@Eve

But if universities had been told to arrange mainly online teaching, we’d be ‘banning them from the university experience, socialising and having fun with their peers, enjoying their youth...’

Mental health disaster waiting to happen. And/or a civil disobedience one.

Or will it be more 'voluntary guidance' that everyone can just ignore?

In a normal year, a uni Christmas might be quite fun! Provided you had a good bunch of mates, a big gang cramming into one house to cook Christmas dinner together, drinks, games, music etc...

But that wont be allowed either will it?
So Christmas away from family will mean JUST seeing your housemates, no-one else and probably not even your boyfriend/girlfriend. Perhaps if you were very lucky with your housemates it would be OK... but still pretty quiet.

This is too much.

Why wouldn't they be allowed to go home to somewhere they've lived for the last 6 months through the virus?

Just ask them to self isolate when they get home.

I’d have loved it 😂 but I had a really tight group of friends & we rarely went home over the holidays.. we stayed & worked in our uni city over summer. I did go home for Christmas & it was nice to see friends from home of course & family but I was at prime ‘my parents & hometown is boring’ age!

(I now live back in my hometown after 10 years away. I missed home eventually).

Could totally see some completely ignoring it while other families follow it to the the letter.
Imagine being the only one in your student house who wasn't allowed home for Christmas!

This would be the last straw for me. I could imagine parents paying for their kids to travel home in the back of delivery vans like an illegal immigrants! Or would they be able to travel after a private test?

University students are really getting a shitty deal this year. I am so glad I'm not an undergrad.

They may have no mixing of households anyway and then the students would be treated the same as any other different household

It would be cheaper financially for DD to stay in her accommodation as she's over 600+ miles away, so usually costs £100 to travel back.

Have to say I think my DD will be back before xmas anyone, in fact, one of her flat mates is considering coming back in the next week or so. She's up in Scotland and can't mix with other households inside. They've already done walking around the park, local hill with other groups, they're finding it hard to book a table out and she's finding it hard having limited contact outside her household (she's never been one for spending time on her own in her room).

I wouldn’t be self isolating to go home either, how ridiculous. The government don’t actually own us.

I had some great university xmases, but only after a couple of years of being there, and I had an established cycle of friends and everywhere was open and bustling.

Oh, and if we can't mix households at that point, then students coming from other accommodation are going to be considered as another household.

@Bol87

I’d have loved it 😂 but I had a really tight group of friends & we rarely went home over the holidays.. we stayed & worked in our uni city over summer. I did go home for Christmas & it was nice to see friends from home of course & family but I was at prime ‘my parents & hometown is boring’ age!

(I now live back in my hometown after 10 years away. I missed home eventually).

DS did this and I always thought he came home for just 2 days at Christmas for more our benefit than his, he worked in his university city and stayed there in the holidays, so did a lot of his friends

The timing if leaking thus is abysmal. So many new students struggling because if lack of freshers and Covid restrictions.
I have 2 2nd year students and although in house shares with friends and ok, it is definitely a bit flatter emotion wise this year.

Im guttee but will do my best to support a Christmas away from home if that's what needs to happen. Right now I'm in a lockdown area anyway, so they could not come home legally anyway right now. We might all be in local lockdown areas come Dec.

What worries me is that if this isn't strictly enforced then more will travel home by default anyway. If all their flatmates break rules or guidelines or whatever legislation may be in place by Xmas then there will potentially be like students in flats etc alone all over Xmas.

There will need yo be nationwide travel ban. They can't just say students can't travel. What about uncle Bob that lives alone 3 hours away that always comes to stay for 2 weeks at Xmas. What about HM Forces personnel who have Xmas leave? What about long distance workers who work away 3 or 4 weeks at a time? Oil rig workers? Boarding school staff and pupils?

I would have been devastated at this when I was in my 1st year at uni. I was only 17 for most of my first year and didn’t get a place in halls or any of the student accommodation flats. I didn’t know anyone and ended up lodger in what was effectively a bed sit. All the ones in halls and flats hung about together and all the local kids had their own social groups already so it was hard to make proper friends that first year. I’m pretty sure my Dad would have come to get me regardless of the rules if the pandemic had happened then.

I really feel for any student away from home who is struggling to fit in this year. I think there will be a lot of drop outs this year.

Also if they ban Xmas travel what about reading weeks?

@LocalLockdowner

The timing if leaking thus is abysmal. So many new students struggling because if lack of freshers and Covid restrictions. I have 2 2nd year students and although in house shares with friends and ok, it is definitely a bit flatter emotion wise this year.

Im guttee but will do my best to support a Christmas away from home if that's what needs to happen. Right now I'm in a lockdown area anyway, so they could not come home legally anyway right now. We might all be in local lockdown areas come Dec.

What worries me is that if this isn't strictly enforced then more will travel home by default anyway. If all their flatmates break rules or guidelines or whatever legislation may be in place by Xmas then there will potentially be like students in flats etc alone all over Xmas.

There will need yo be nationwide travel ban. They can't just say students can't travel. What about uncle Bob that lives alone 3 hours away that always comes to stay for 2 weeks at Xmas. What about HM Forces personnel who have Xmas leave? What about long distance workers who work away 3 or 4 weeks at a time? Oil rig workers? Boarding school staff and pupils?

Oil rig employees are getting regularly tested, before being flown over - they get a rapid result to allow them to get back out to rig. .

It’s a shame similar can’t be done for the rest of us !

then students coming from other accommodation are going to be considered as another household

Depending on the set up, they may be individual households of one single person.

In my halls we had rooms off a corridor. There were communal spaces, but we were classed as separate households for (eg) tv licence purposes. I didn't even know the names of some of the people in my corridor!

In a (probably more common) flat set up, halls of residence have individual rental contracts and you could argue they are separate households too. For benefits etc you are classed as a separate household in a flatshare, provided you have a separate rental agreement.

@user1471588124

How much more can they expect young people to give up, while simultaneously blaming them for everything?

This.