Getting students home for Christmas

[Figmentofmyimagination]

This plan does seem a bit ott to me but also, it doesn’t say anything about the ‘plan’ for them to be allowed back again in January. Maybe they think this doesn’t need to be spelled out.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-54887526

Wondering now whether we should drive up (6+ hours, England to Scotland) so as to fit more stuff in the car just in case. Really want her to be allowed back to university after Xmas. It would be even more grim to be stuck in your childhood bedroom with just parents for company. What a weird world that this should even be an issue.

I think the plan is just to get them home for Christmas at the moment, ad it looked liked they wouldn’t be allowed up to recently.

It looks like they are going to be given tests before being allowed home and then given a 6 day window to travel. I’m sure they will want them back in January. It is going to be pretty hectic for students and I think a lot will stay at home in January. The University that my son went to closed for January and the year finished early April.

This sounds like excellent news. Glad they are making students a priority for mass testing. Moonshot starting to work?!

I've generally agreed with / complied with the covid restrictions in place up till now. However I just feel uncomfortable about this level of mass control being applied to students.
It's also another 'England' thing so no idea what it will mean to DS1 who is studying in Wales (we live in England).

I work at a university offering blended learning, i.e. some face to face teaching, and the students have been worrying about getting home so I expect they will be relieved there is a plan. Although we are still getting new cases each week, the rate has definitely plummeted and there have only been a very small number (less than 20) cases among staff. It doesn't appear to have spread to the wider community either (campus university) as rates outside the section of the city that contains the university remain below national average.

The 'travel window' week is the last week of our term, so won't cause much disruption as most in person sessions finish the week before. As exams have been confirmed to all be online in January, I expect most students won't be back till the new semester in February, by which time hopefully the vaccine may be having some effect.

I think it’s a good idea. My DS is in a house though so can’t be monitored I guess.

No mention re. Scotland yet either.

It's more pandering to the core conservative voter who want to see their kids at christmas, even if it's not the same as the interests of the students.

(of course it is in the interests of some students to be home working remotely - generally the privileged ones)

Isn’t there a really obvious flaw in this plan? Mainly, that the testing will only tell you if you are shedding the virus at the point of testing. Not whether you have been exposed and might develop it later.

Seems like there’s a bit of a risk here that families might find their housekhoods self isolating in the run up to and possibly including Xmas.

However I just feel uncomfortable about this level of mass control being applied to students

So do I. They've been treated disgracefully and I hope they remember this at the next GE.

Viewing it as mass control of students isn't how I'd view it. Under current rules, as of 2nd December only students in tier 1 areas would be allowed to go and stay with their parents and then only if their parents lived in tier 1 areas. For all other students, it would be an illegal visit as indoors socialising is banned in higher tier areas and leaving the areas is strongly discouraged.

Students are being given a travel window, because they are being given a test without clinical need to try and make it safer for them to visit family for Christmas. No other group of people are being offered this peace of mind for seeing family at Christmas. So yes, they are being told when to leave, which is a stick, but there is the carrot of the test to reduce the risk that they spread illness to their older and more vulnerable family members.

I'm sure people who have spent most of this year shielding would love it if they could nominate family for testing so that they could safely be allowed to spend Christmas together.