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

Covid

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

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Why don't students respect the stay home message?

283 replies

Propsneeded · 09/01/2021 23:17

Simple really. Universities are not open for the vast majority unless veterinary etc.....yet many are turning up already...

Falmouth 200 students back despite University not open....

Why don't they follow guidelines...

Aibu they can do what they like
Yanbu they should follow the guidelines and stay at home

OP posts:
RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 09/01/2021 23:29

@user1471565182

Anybody bored of the endless attacks on young people yet, whilst they're simultaneously expected to pay for this government's and older generation's shit?
Yes i am

Other posters have come up with very good reasons so hopefully thats helped the OP out

Oooh need to vote

corythatwas · 09/01/2021 23:29

The government guidelines were only issued 4 days before lectures were due to start: some students will already have travelled back.

Other students won't have had any choice: nobody can force parents to keep their adult children at home, many don't have the space for 3 adults to be working/studying in the same home. Some did not go home over the holidays in the first place. Some live in their university town. Many have jobs in their university town which they rely on to keep afloat (a co-student of dd's works night shift for the NHS).

QueenOfTheDoubleWide · 09/01/2021 23:29

Probably the same reason as the elderly don't.

Our local garden centre is pretty busy with elderly people wandering round despite the café being shut

StillWeRise · 09/01/2021 23:29

why pick on students?

AliTheMinx · 09/01/2021 23:32

Some have very difficult home lives (abusive families/broken homes). Some are estranged. Some need to return for the sake of their mental health/wellbeing. Some do not have adequate study space at home to keep up with their studies. Some need to return to their jobs as they need to work. Some need to return as their families are facing financial ruin and cannot support them. Many are tied into accommodation contracts, which they can't be released from. It's too easy to tar all students with the same brush, but in my experience there are genuine cases for some to return, and the vast majority intend to isolate/quarantine, as appropriate.

Sparklesocks · 09/01/2021 23:33

Some students will have nowhere else to go. Not everyone has a home outside of their student digs.

Others may only be kipping on the sofa when they visit their families but there’s not enough room for them to stay their for an extended period of time.

Some will have a job in their university city they need to do to pay their rent.

Stirmecrazy · 09/01/2021 23:33

If universities don’t want students to use the accomodation they are paying ££££ for . They should lay out clear refund policies or the govt should support universities doing so Instead they want students to pay £££ for sub standard degrees (and yes I know lecturers are working themselves to the bones trying to provide online but you cannot escape the fact for a lot of courses this is substandard) and £££ for accommodation they are not allowed to use . And are being portrayed as the super spreaders of COVID by the press and everyone else simply because they want to return to this accomodation. It is a national disgrace what we are putting our younger generation through and I have been amazed by the resilience of this age group despite what they are having to endure.

Propsneeded · 09/01/2021 23:33

@CountessFrog

Did they go home?

When I was at university, I stayed in the university town all year.

Well since they are being dropped back then yes they went home

Yes I have a degree. We have a small number of ICU beds in Cornwall.... so really were hoping that some would respect the guidelines. I guess that just for us working people to follow not students who could study from wherever they stayed at Christmas

OP posts:
corythatwas · 09/01/2021 23:33

Postgraduate students and 3rd year students writing their dissertations may well need the library (click and collect service).

And yes, absolutely students who have not been able to go back home because of shielding parents.

Or because their parents don't want them. Or their step-parents don't want them. And there are students who have grown up in care and don't have homes to go to. There are even students who have lost their parents to Covid.

Frownette · 09/01/2021 23:33

Might have difficulties living in their family home, want student facilities etc.

I would have found uni very strange if COVID had been around at the time.

Propsneeded · 09/01/2021 23:34

I totally agree that they should be refunded accommodation costs if they don't come to university accommodation

OP posts:
Sparklesocks · 09/01/2021 23:35

Also things like WiFi in some homes might not take the strain of adults working from home, kids home schooling and students doing their uni work all at the same time. It might be essential that they go back to their accom to have the space/services to study. And some may not even have WiFi at their family home.

RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 09/01/2021 23:35

I guess that just for us working people to follow not students who could study from wherever they stayed at Christmas

Seriously

Youve had posters point out the reasons...including alltheminxs post about some students awful home life and thats what you come up with

corythatwas · 09/01/2021 23:35

I guess that just for us working people to follow not students who could study from wherever they stayed at Christmas

Not all students can. Some need library resources. Not everything is online (e-books are often ludicrously expensive and libraries struggle to keep up). Some simply don't have a workspace.

And as I said, government directives were only published after Christmas when students may already have returned. How were they to know?

Sparklingbrook · 09/01/2021 23:36

My DS has returned to University, he lives in a private rental. He is now 'staying at home' in that private rental, studying, having online lectures and going out for groceries. What is the problem?

Twobrews · 09/01/2021 23:38

DD's going back because,
there's a houseful here now with other DC home learning, DH is doing all his usual head office stuff from home and unfortunately we're having building work done,
She's paying for private rental and most of her stuff is there,
She can get medical treatment there which she has been refused here,
She wants to see her flat mates,

FirstOfficerDouglas · 09/01/2021 23:40

Agree with PPs - Students are young adults who live in their university town. Why would they not be there?

The young people I know are doing a great job. They have lost out on so much and yet they mostly (as much as any other group) follow the rules.

I went to the supermarket the day before Christmas eve. It was manic. Queues, stock shortages, it was 10pm - and the shop was almost entirely staffed by people in their teens and early twenties. They were smiling, helping stressed customers, lugging crates of produce about and managing some very difficult people. And some of them were working all night restocking the shelves.

(And many of them were also students).

Liftmusic · 09/01/2021 23:43

They will probably miss their graduation this year like last years cohort did if that makes anyone feel better too?

I can’t imagine how hard it is for them and they seem to be the biggest target to blame for this fiasco.

Crumpetycrump · 09/01/2021 23:43

I don’t think students will be spreading the virus now if they return to their university home. Nothing is open (pubs, clubs etc) so please leave them alone!

SachaStark · 09/01/2021 23:45

I live near to Falmouth, OP...

Surely the students who have returned need to be on campus in order to continue their degree studies? I know that at Falmouth, most of the degree courses are highly practical and require the use of specialist equipment that you can only find at the university, so they need to be there in person.

But maybe the Penryn/Falmouth campuses are fully closed, I’ve really not looked into it much.

I would have thought that our number one problem in terms of COVID transmission rates would be tourists more than the students.

Serin · 09/01/2021 23:45

I have 3 uni students. Two of them are back in their digs, they are both studying nursing. One is doing his 12 hour shifts on a Covid ward, you know, looking after people who are dying. But yeah, crack on, all students are a waste of space Hmm

BackforGood · 09/01/2021 23:46

YABVU, but I haven't added to the poll as your questions don't make sense. Of course students shouldn't be doing just as they want, as nobody would, but then that isn't the question you have asked.

Everyone has already answered the question as to why 3.5% of students at Falmouth might well be at home, in their term time homes, so no point in copying them all out again, but, just to reiterate YABU.

GiraffeWithSwag · 09/01/2021 23:46

@Sparklingbrook

My DS has returned to University, he lives in a private rental. He is now 'staying at home' in that private rental, studying, having online lectures and going out for groceries. What is the problem?
Same with my DS. Had test before leaving family home to return to Uni house....private rental so not fresher who may at least stand some chance of refund/partial refund. All his study stuff is there.....it’s his work zone. Plus he may need to access the click and collect library services. Not all young people are flouting the rules and partying 24/7. Some are actually trying to get a decent education. YABU
RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 09/01/2021 23:47

There is a lad from a foreign country in dds house

She’s not gone back yet (even though she obviously only bought a few bits back with her cos she wasn’t expecting to stay this long) but he has had to come back and is just in the house with one more person whose parent is shielding

FirstOfficerDouglas · 09/01/2021 23:49

OP - students ARE working people. You are in your home I expect not your childhood home. You seem to be missing the obvious. They have left home and now live in Falmouth. Just as you do.

Many adults, married, with kids, studying or working who have left home visit their parents at Christmas and return to their own home in January.