Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Covid

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Why are we okay with students being locked up in their dorms?

651 replies

JKRowlingIsMyQueen · 28/09/2020 19:05

I just heard about the students in Manchester who are not allowed to leave their dorms.

Why on earth is this allowed to happen? So the rest of us who are not students are allowed to get pissed in a pub, get on a plane and travel abroad and back etc., but if you are a student you are not allowed to LEAVE your dorms?

What science are these kind of rules following? The science of Boris needing more ammo to blame young people for spreading the virus?

I'm losing hope.

OP posts:
CovidChristmas · 28/09/2020 21:34

They shouldn’t be blocking fire escape routes but to say students should be able to go home to self isolate is wrong. Halls are their homes during term time.

Russellbrandshair · 28/09/2020 21:34

What do you mean “are you ok with this”?

I’m not “ok” with it no but what exactly do you expect me to do about it considering I don’t have a child old enough to be at university? I could ask- what exactly are YOU doing about this if you believe the rest of us aren’t doing enough?

XingMing · 28/09/2020 21:36

DS has already told us that when he is out of self-isolating on Friday, that he will be running a food service for other students who are still locked down with Covid in his block. He will batch cook and deliver to the door (nutritionally balanced, healthy) meals in tubs to be reheated. Please return the tubs and lids washed! It won't be cooked to order, and special orders won't be possible, but having worked in a hotel, doing staff food as well as a la carte meals, anyone participating will eat well.

HesterShaw1 · 28/09/2020 21:36

Whatever people's personal angles coming at this - and I'm of the opinion that student life should be allowed to continue if it makes hardly any of them actually ill - then most people seem to agree that students have been completely shafted. It's shameful.

PicsInRed · 28/09/2020 21:36

@mumsneedwine

Well if the purpose of all this is for our educated young people to leave the country then the plan is going v well. So many talking about emigrating when graduate. New Zealand a favourite place to go. LYou reap what you sow.
NZ is a giant lockin at the moment, so it doesn't make sense to move there if angered by ... lockin. 😉
Dustballs · 28/09/2020 21:37

And £9000. £9000! for this experience. What a rip off.

cantkeepawayforever · 28/09/2020 21:38

@CovidChristmas

They shouldn’t be blocking fire escape routes but to say students should be able to go home to self isolate is wrong. Halls are their homes during term time.
Exactly.

Blocking fire escapes is wrong.

Not ensuring sifficient food is wrong.

Not providing physical and mental health services is wrong.

Sending possibly infected - even if asymptomatic - young people the length and breadth of the country back to their family homes, where they live with older and more vulnerable people is wrong.

2 week isolation period THEN send them home for online learning is fine, and should be accompanied by full rent rebates and possible fee reductions.

ktp100 · 28/09/2020 21:38

How can locking them in be legal? What if there was a fire?!

DonnaDonna01 · 28/09/2020 21:43

@XingMing what a breath of fresh air to hear how kind and thoughtful your DS is willing to be. I hope your very proud, some of these comments on this post highlight not everyone is.

JamieLeeCurtains · 28/09/2020 21:43

@Dustballs

And £9000. £9000! for this experience. What a rip off.
Plus £150-200 a week halls.
Boysarebackintown · 28/09/2020 21:43

This has made me very angry over the last few days, just think about this, we now live in a country where citizens can be locked in their homes and not allowed to leave. We now have unlawful imprisonment. This is Massive.

thecatsatonthewall · 28/09/2020 21:45

@CovidChristmas

They shouldn’t be blocking fire escape routes but to say students should be able to go home to self isolate is wrong. Halls are their homes during term time.
Nope, Halls are exactly that... Halls, not home.

also, because of the rates of transmission, they will be there for weeks/months as CV works its way through the accommodation, they cannot simply isolate for 2 weeks then go home, new cases will emerge constantly, same as we saw with cruise ships in the spring.

Are you happy for teenagers to be locked up for weeks on end? or is that a price worth paying so we can all go down the pub??

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 21:47

Whilst the reality of what it means for students to live in student halls while isolating is terrible. What did people think it would be like going to uni this year and living in a student hall????? Why were parents happy to send/support their adult child to go to uni and stay in a hall.

Disease control means anyone on your floor or even half a building will have to self-isolate for 14 days. Any other case and you are back into self-isolation. That is literally how it works so why are people surprised and more to the point why did the freshers go. Even if they were going to have f2f activities this year -living in a hall with other students is basically being in lockdown for most of the year...........

And I am an academic and i have no idea why our students have come on campus, why they or their parents thought it was a good idea.

This aint ajoke - its disease control during a pandemic. Protocol arent going to change just cos you're 18 and a student. But if you are 18 and dont want to constantly have to self-isolate etc then do move into a damn student hall which is disease prone at the best of times.

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 21:48

dont move

DobbyTheHouseElk · 28/09/2020 21:50

I’m not ok,with this. It’s bloody terrifying.

Jumpingkangeroo · 28/09/2020 21:50

I saw an academic mocking that parents were calling the university whilst in lockdown. On another forum but that is what we are dealing with. I am sure if it was their child (and my ds turned 18 in August) that it would be a different scenario.

HesterShaw1 · 28/09/2020 21:51

@zurich09

Whilst the reality of what it means for students to live in student halls while isolating is terrible. What did people think it would be like going to uni this year and living in a student hall????? Why were parents happy to send/support their adult child to go to uni and stay in a hall.

Disease control means anyone on your floor or even half a building will have to self-isolate for 14 days. Any other case and you are back into self-isolation. That is literally how it works so why are people surprised and more to the point why did the freshers go. Even if they were going to have f2f activities this year -living in a hall with other students is basically being in lockdown for most of the year...........

And I am an academic and i have no idea why our students have come on campus, why they or their parents thought it was a good idea.

This aint ajoke - its disease control during a pandemic. Protocol arent going to change just cos you're 18 and a student. But if you are 18 and dont want to constantly have to self-isolate etc then do move into a damn student hall which is disease prone at the best of times.

But what I'm still wondering is...are any of them actually ill?
Pixxie7 · 28/09/2020 21:51

It’s appalling if they are actually locked in, but there is no denying that many have ignored the rules, they are adults so responsible for their own decisions. They knew the consequences, hopefully it will only be for 2 weeks and they will learn from their mistakes.

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 21:52

And I really am sympathetic and do know the toll it takes. I spent hours of my time in March helping first years trying to get back home or to their home country. Thats precisely why unis thought they wouldnt have any customers this year because why would anyone go back into that. Surprise surprise its a bumper year for us this year, but this still doesnt explain why students/parents thought it would be a good thing to do.

It isnt about face to face teaching but about the fact that cruise ships, military barracks, schools, hospitals, care homes, student halls....are all places where diseases spread fast.So why move into one during a pandemic. All students had a choice to stay at home and study online if they did not want to constantly have to self-isolate

zurich09 · 28/09/2020 21:53

@HesterShaw1 - this isnt about them being ill but disease control.

XingMing · 28/09/2020 21:53

Thanks @DonnaDonna01. There has been a lot of flak on this thread aimed at me because I won't say that the universities are wrong. DS, who is in the thick of it , has a practical plan to help out others. I do appreciate that I can be unsparing of snowflakes (though not deliberately unkind I hope, just a bit more bracing than some people find comfortable.)

DonnaDonna01 · 28/09/2020 21:54

@Zurich90 so would you have asked your adult child to stay at home, take a year out and you finance this (if you can) because they would struggle to get a job in the current climate and no gap year travelling either. What did you expect all these young adults would do?

Devlesko · 28/09/2020 21:55

My dd is in Manchester school boarder not uni.
These young people have not long since left school, I think it's disgusting, and I shudder to think of the H&S issues.

The eldest in my dd school are completely protected should the school have to close and it involves overseas students so complex in places.
Yet young people just one year older are completely on their own.
They should have been allowed to go home.

SimonJT · 28/09/2020 21:56

@zurich09

And I really am sympathetic and do know the toll it takes. I spent hours of my time in March helping first years trying to get back home or to their home country. Thats precisely why unis thought they wouldnt have any customers this year because why would anyone go back into that. Surprise surprise its a bumper year for us this year, but this still doesnt explain why students/parents thought it would be a good thing to do.

It isnt about face to face teaching but about the fact that cruise ships, military barracks, schools, hospitals, care homes, student halls....are all places where diseases spread fast.So why move into one during a pandemic. All students had a choice to stay at home and study online if they did not want to constantly have to self-isolate

A neighbours daughter had already signed her agreement for her university owned student flat and paid a deposit, so even if she chose to remain at home she would be liable for her rent. She would also have to inform student finance that she was living at home, as students who live at home receive a smaller maintenance loan. Can’t really train to be a vet by studying online.
BatShite · 28/09/2020 21:56

Disease control means anyone on your floor or even half a building will have to self-isolate for 14 days

Is this also happening in blocks of flats?

Am extremely glad to not be in a block of flats if so, thats terrifying and ridiculous, that a whole floor can be made to quarantine because someone tests positive, who may or may not have had any contact with the many made to isolate?