Students returning to university ?

[RockingMyFiftiesNot]

Not sure how I feel about this one.
Various friend's children are returning to university next week. From their perspective I can see why they would want to return and why their parents would be happy for that.
I'm concerned about the potential impact on the spread of the virus. We live in a city with one if the highest student populations in the country and our numbers went through the roof when students returned after the summer. Regular stores of police breaking up parties (stating fact, not judging..... pretty sure I'd have been partying too at that age) and whole halls being quarantined.
I know students were tested before coming home at Christmas but even if they are tested before returning, it's not to say that they aren't still incubating at the point they are tested.
Happy to debate - just made me feel a bit nervous about a repeat of the post-summer rise in numbers

"The students I know who are returning don't share bedrooms and have ample private space to study."

Then ask THEM , OP. You know so much about their lives they must be people who would happily enough talk to you. They are your mystery people who have the answers you seek.

A lot of students have gone back. My DS has gone back to his student house on campus he's a first year - it is totally permitted by the university. He had to rest and everything to go back. DD however is still home as despite being a second year and being in rented accommodation she has no access to studios so she is better able to do her art here. And I was worrying I was a bad Mum not persuading her to go back!

You people are so judgey!

If dd wants to return, that is totally up to her, she's a fully functioning adult.

@mindutopia just out of interest, at your uni do you know when students doing hard sciences will be allowed back on campus (as in the ones who actually NEED to be in the lab)? DS still hasn't heard when they can go back.

To give an idea of how ridiculously complicated it's being with us not being on campus - I'm doing a statistics module at the moment - and none of us are particularly enamoured at the idea of statistics to start with but we need to do it to be able to interpret research findings etc. Normally we would be in our department computer suite and with the lecturer working through examples together on the uni stat software.

This year we have a powerpoint, a word document and an excel spreadsheet and a range of websites to try to use to run the statistical testing. I'm (god this sounds arrogant but I've heard it from lots on the course said to me as well), fairly solidly near the top of the class in the group and am finding the statistics stuff relatively easy once I work through it in my head... but I was in tears yesterday with the learning task that would usually have taken place in a face to face session - I couldn't get it to work at all, despite taking the whole thing back to bare bones and working through it all from scratch repeatedly. Couple of questions in a lab session and I would have no doubt got it - but now I need to play email ping pong to try to get it clarified by the lecturer. If I'M struggling - there are others in my group who are falling apart with it all.

@CoffeeWithCheese but even if you were on campus you still wouldn't have face to face meetings with your tutors at this time?

It's s* all round.

Feel so sad for young people missing out on once in a life experiences be it final year of school and all that entails or the freshers year etc