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.

Ds1 has been at university for 6 days. It's not been a great 6 days, the staggered drop offs have meant a long run-in time, lectures etc start on Monday, and he has spent most of the week in his room on his own. He has spoken a bit to his flatmates, and worked out when is good to socialise with them (mornings) and when isn't (evenings) given that he is not a drinker, and is pretty shy in large groups, and there are 15 in their flat. It's not been terrible, but the experience is so different from normal, and he is away from home for the first time.

If he's told he can't come home for Christmas, that will have a massive impact on his mental health. Since when was it ok to treat young people like this? And SURELY if this was a possibility, the universities should have been delaying students arriving till after Christmas and doing the first term online from home?! Or could it be that it's all to do with paying universities money for accommodation, which they wouldn't have been able to do if they were living at home?

I will be LIVID if this happens, and would take every opportunity to flout the law and bring him home if at all possible. We won't be seeing any elderly family anyway (too many of us to see anyone, we're 6 already).

Surely the universities could do the last 2 weeks of term online, with students isolating at that point, and then let them go home? Or let them choose? Stay at uni for Xmas, or do 2 weeks online before the end of term and then go home? The ones who would struggle with staying are the ones who are likely to be most fragile with MH anyway and also the most invisible ones.

Of course it won’t happen. They’re not in jail and that’s the only way they’d keep them in - lock them in. They’ll go home or those that can’t- stay and party.

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

Nice ageism there.

Older folk can have MH problems too, OP. Young people are not more important than our older people. And young people are a hell of a lot more likely to have broken Covid laws and to be spreading it.

Realistically what do people expect will happen, a temporary relax of any restrictions in place because it's Christmas?

If we cannot mix households, have more than 6 people or whatever then this will be it. Obey or take the risk of the fine.

They got away with just applying fines to whatever they fancy with the masks. People begged others to think about the ramifications of just going along with everything. People encouraged to grass up their neighbour for breaking the rules. People encouraged to berate those who couldn't really wear masks. People encouraged to grass those up who have 7 people in their home. Send your child into an unsafe environment or face a fine.

At least they are giving you all time to come to terms with Christmas is cancelled. Shame they didn't do that not long ago with another religious celebration who had hours notice that it was not allowed to go ahead.

Just more utter crap, the more rules they bring in the more people will break them.

My son has been at uni a week and fortunately seems to having a better experience than some other freshers I have read about.

He intends to stay there for the 12 week semester.

But is he coming home for Christmas? Absolutely. No 2 ways about that.

If it involves breaking a law (in a limited and specific way), so be it.

To add, this is not the fault of the universities; like the schools, they are in a very tough position. Government should be funding safety.

All the way through this pandemic, the unintended consequences have been disregarded. 'Protect the NHS' led to massive under-diagnosis of serious illnesses, with an on-going legacy of harm. Shutting the schools has left many many children with ongoing problems and damage. Families not able to attend funerals....etcetc

Actions have consequences, and when those consequences are also harmful, this cannot be ignored.

I get your point but did it have to end with telling old people to say at home alone for Xmas ? You realise there is all age groups in the vulnerable category for one and no 1 set of people are more important than the other.

I don’t agree with uni students not being allowed home by the way but I also don’t think locking the vulnerable away for Xmas is also fair.

Great! My daughter is already facing a miserable few months and this will finish her off. She's in a house with people she doesn't jell with (leftovers on a four year course). Her room is miserable and campus study rooms where she normally works are closed. She's not allowed to see her friends in a different house as it's a lockdown area (they're well behaved & stick to that), all but 1 hours a week of lectures are online. Her mental health is on the floor as she has OCD & is understandably in a flair up. She finishes on 18th Dec so no chance to isolate first. If she's told she can't come home at Christmas I don't know what she'll do.This is why I believe universities should be delaying until January. It's madness 😳

It won't happen, yet more scaremongering, people relish this crap.

user1471588124

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

We're not actually blaming young people you know. That's just one of those things repeated by refugees from anti-vax/conspiracty sites. Along with their "5G causes it/ Boris invented the virus" claims.

Nor is the government of the UK sitting in a room saying "so how can we make it worse for young people to get our revenge for xyz"

I don't know what I'd think about a plan to have them stay at university during xmas. It doesn't sound very workable to me and people have raised sensible objections, but it would depend what the actual plan was since we don't know. Isn't this why things like this are leaked? So thousands of actual parents will come up with every possible issue it raises.

Hey, maybe they were planning to say "we'll give you £xxx for xmas if you can persuade your kid to stay at uni this year and do their own washing" That could be an attractive option for some.

Uni shouldn't have gone back but now they have it is huge risk to have a large amount of people moving around the country risking bringing the virus back to uni when they return after Christmas.

Im bemused... OP why do you think its OK for old people to stay at home in what could be a potentially solitary environment but young people who I presume will be in halls or shared accommodation shouldn't?

I've a DD whose been in uni halls for a few days and thankfully she's had a better time of things than some. She'll be coming home for Xmas no matter what, she has work lined up and we want her here (shielding household too!)
I'll pay a fine in advance if need be and she'll join the 7 others that will be sat around the dinner table on Xmas day

As if anyone will obey this anyway.

Don't forget a lot of students are from overseas, we don't know if their country of origin wants them back for two / three weeks or if they would need to self isolate on return.

Surely it depends on the uni and the situation at the time. If there is an outbreak at a particular campus it would be sensible to lockdown that campus. Having said that how many students are at campus universities?

Absolutely no bloody way will we be doing this. We have stuck to the rules. All of them. But I draw the line at this. One dc won't have any accommodation as halls only rented for term time, second dc already struggles with her mental health and no way am I leaving her alone in a student house at Christmas. Not to mention we budget their allowances based on them being at home during Christmas break and can't find additional money to fund them staying at Uni towns for then. Absolutely no chance.

It would be a ludicrous policy decision. Would be unenforceable and widely flouted.

One of the plans don't forget also includes locking London down if needed. How many Uni students are currently there?

If you/the Uni/Hall are in a restricted zone do you expect a special Uni release pass?

Start your plans B's, C' and Z's now. Flu season is quickly ascending on us. What can you as their parents do to help them cope if they cannot come home? Maybe one of those M&S meals that always gets a mention on here. Facetime Christmas morning, facetime dinner so they are there eating similar with you at the table.

Track and trace does anyone really think this will be successful even if it ever gets released? Plus it relies on everyone having it

Testing cannot cope with the demands at the moment, mix in the demand once flu starts and then what?

Think about those you know who will be alone and isolated and what if anything you can do to help them cheer up.

I thought I had heard about this a few weeks ago. As the students would be treated as households. Not sure where I heard it from but it would have been before students were going back/starting university.

@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.

Nice OP 😒. Why are you throwing older people under the bus? And what ‘mental health’ arises from a three extra weeks on campus in an outbreak situation for these young adults ? Maybe dial back the hyperbole?

At my daughter's halls everyone sharing the communal facilities classes as a household. So for my daughter that's the 6 on her corridor who share a kitchen/living space. For those with shared bathrooms the number may be slightly different.

It won’t be a “students can’t go home for Christmas”. It will be a ban on non-essential travel and having people from outside your household in your home, applied to everyone.

Which would effectively mean that students can’t leave their households and travel to stay in another one (their parents’) for a Christmas holiday. But not aimed exclusively at students.

And there’ll be exceptions for people with mental health issues or people who are moving permanently into another household. Or getting an eye test.

It’s going to be shit, and my daughter is still determined to go to uni tomorrow.

@canigooutyet

Some Uni halls also rent out to none students during holidays.

During the summer, when students are no longer renting their rooms? Yes.

But Christmas is different. It's in the middle of the year so students will leave all their stuff in their rooms and come back in January. I've never heard of uni accommodation being rented out to tourists at Xmas, unless perhaps we're talking about vacant rooms.

I'm a lecturer.

This won't happen. Students have often finished teaching by early Dec, they will move then, not wait til Christmas proper.

Having said that, I did a tutor session yesterday and the number one thing they were looking forward to this year was being more independent and having a purpose. Sitting at home with parents online doesn't facilitate that. So, many young people are enjoying being away from home quite a lot (which their parents may not truly appreciate, with all of this talk of bringing them home if they only have limited contact time).

I'm not sure what the population want us to do. If we go full campus, rates will rise. Local people don't like that. If we limit numbers on campus, by doing things like cutting face to face contact in half, parents complain they 'only' have four hours or whatever (when actually four hours of seminars is fine for a humanities subject in corona times, not for science, self-study is the order of the day at uni, they aren't at school!) If we go completely online everyone is indignant there is no face to face teaching and worried about mental health.

It IS wrong that universities should be prioritizing their bottom line by opening halls if teaching is online, however, that's on the government and those who voted for the government. If we don't have students paying to be here, and paying to be in halls, our business will simply collapse, and we are NOT eligible for a bail-out, this has been refused outright by government so it's try to generate income or mass redundancies and some unis going under. That won't enhance the teaching experience of next year's cohort either.

I have been quite inspired by some of the lovely students I've met who seem to be making the best of a bad job. I hope we are doing enough to reach out to the ones who might not be coping so well or are feeling isolated- but if you look on MN, half the population feels depressed and isolated. For many young people, being away from home, having a bit of independence, meeting a few nice people (not 100's) and going onto campus two days a week for a couple of classes is infinitely preferable to sitting at home without the possibility of work or travel and feeling like they have no purpose.