'Reading week returners '...

[Bailey0703]

DD1 deferred so life has been pretty quiet for her last few weeks. Just work and home, Bf (also deferred). and a couple of mates.. Now all of a sudden there is a flurry of activity as 'most friends are coming home for reading week as they are really bored'

In her circle this means 3 from London, 2 from Sheffield 1 from Liverpool and two from Nottingham. With the exception of one from London All the others have come by train.. to a TIER 1 area..

Am I right in thinking this will actually spread the virus and our relatively small cases will jump in a couple of weeks .. and that the Universities /Govt should have done something to stop this. ? (As guessing DDs friends are not the only ones doing this ?)

Yes, it will.

The migration of students is problematic. No-one wants to cut young people off from their families, but to-ing and fro-ing is likely to give more opportunities for transmission. University terms aren't that long, and I'm not at all sure that travelling in the middle is a sensible thing to do. But unless the university is in tier 3, it's not against the guidelines. Though they should be living according to the tier rules of where they are based, so I suppose they have to go into their own family home but should not be mixing indoors with other households

Yes it will spread it. If they are in t2 or T3 areas they shouldn’t be coming home as they have to follow the rules where they live, so aren’t allowed to mix inside with another household. I hope your dd won’t be mixing with them inside?

My DD is not going to see any of them sadly except over FaceTime.. boyfriends mum is the middle of Chemo so DD and BF are really fanatically careful with social distancing and minimum socialising. So her life is pretty small at the moment.. I'm so proud of them both.
Not all youngsters are self absorbed but sadly it seems many are ..

Not all youngsters are self absorbed but sadly it seems many are ..

If your child was away from home and struggling with being at uni in COVID times would you tell her she couldn't come home? Thought not.

In the nicest possible way, mind your own business. Students have enough to deal with this year without this incessant whining about them spreading the virus.

Whining implies it's groundless. It's not.

If you are seeing your family who you don't live with you don't have the right to comment on whether or not students should be allowed to do the same. There are a sizable number of MN posters who seem to think students (and young adults in general) are subhuman and should have to follow a completely different set of rules compared to the rest of the population.

Only those with the virus may spread it. Being a student does not = having the virus.

Well done your DD and her BF. My 24 year old son has hardly been out since March and only went back to work 3 weeks ago. He has stayed in due to my DH having to isolate after a heart operation. He is isolating at the moment due to a work colleague testing positive and he has stayed in his room, only leaving to go to the bathroom.

@ShaunaTheSheep

Not all youngsters are self absorbed but sadly it seems many are ..

If your child was away from home and struggling with being at uni in COVID times would you tell her she couldn't come home? Thought not.

In the nicest possible way, mind your own business. Students have enough to deal with this year without this incessant whining about them spreading the virus.

Sorry you couldn't be more wrong. My eldest is in London and I haven't seen her for two months. She asked if she could come this weekend and I have said no. The rules for Tier 2 are no overnights in other household.

I am sorry but we need to keep the rate of transmission down so that we have sufficient beds for all the normal winter illnesses. That is the responsibility of everyone. Sorry if people are 'bored' - it doesn't trump public health in a pandemic.

So we are supposed to ignore students' mental health, are we?

Students in halls can come home . It is not against the law.

I’m with you OP. I was thinking that it was actually quite good that the students were getting Covid now - so hopefully they’d be free to come home at xmas. Hadn’t factored in returning by train at reading week though - wtf

I’m in Tier 2. I assumed that DS (Tier 1) should not come home for reading week next week as he is not currently part of our household and therefore not allowed to mix indoors with us. But that feels like a harsh thing to say to him!

Suggest watching Panorama (on now).

Honestly, if my child was at uni at the moment I would be suggesting they come home and do the online work from here. If they wanted to stay at uni they could but I wouldn't be excluding them from what would still be their primary residence. Can you imagine the uproar if the government stopped students from being allowed back to their family homes? If they isolate for 2 weeks once they get back then covid shouldn't spread via them.

@ShaunaTheSheep

Students in halls can come home . It is not against the law.

It is if they or their parents are in a tier 2 or 3 area. Students are adults and living in a different household.

@Racoonworld Happy to accept that if you can provide the evidence that it is against the law for students temporarily staying in halls of residence for the purposes of education to return to their lawful home address...

The gov.uk website states on the COVID part relating to university students “You must not move backward and forward between your permanent home and term time address during term time – subject to limited exemptions set out in law.“

Link to the exemptions and the statute?

And the law that gives the State the power to prevent people from lawfully entering their permanent home?

Haven’t looked at the exemptions - assume they are the usual ones, ie this does not cut across ability to provide medical assistance to vulnerable people. I assumed that there wasn’t one that said “because the home comforts available in the family home are of a higher quality than your rooms in uni“ (reason why DS would be thinking about coming back ).

Not sure re statutory force (am a lawyer but a lazy one). I thought they had fairly wide powers under standing SIs and the wording here is compulsive - must not - rather than suggestive - may/should not, which is what they tend to use when it is a request.

Can't ask the elderly and vulnerable to self isolate but it's ok to lock students up in halls of residence where they have a room and that's it. Why is this?

My DD will be coming home for reading week, from a tier 2 area. We will firm a bubble with her and she won't visit anyone else when she's here.

She lives alone whilst at uni and only has studio time twice a week, where she sees one other person. She's isolated and very lonely. I wouldn't stop her coming home!

The law does not prevent it. I believe these are the London regs for example.

I do not support any of the CV19 legislation and have not since March although I do follow it.

Yes, these are the Tier 2 regs so I think they would apply to anyone moving to or from Tiers 2 (or 3), but not if you just are moving Tier 1 to Tier 1.

(I’m not an obsessive, I just had a look to see if there was a quick answer when DS was talking about potentially coming home for reading week but it became moot anyway as he went into lockdown).