Heading towards year 3 exams (uni 2017)

[Xenia]

Continuation of www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3538808-heading-towards-year-2-exams-uni-2017 as we have reached page 40.

Hard to believe they are all in year 3 now and many will finish university in June 2020.

Will they have lectures sent out electronically? I realise that doesn't help those who have to do lab work or need access to specialist equipment.
DS2's friend who is studying Computer Science at Shanghai has had work sent to him.
For those taking finals in the next few months it must be very unsettling.

Ds has had his foreign field trip cancelled...fortunately he'll be fully reimbursed but this module counted as a 1/4 of his year 3 assessments, so he's waiting to hear how they'll now be assessed. Fortunately he has another year at Uni and has no end of year exams (and has been doing week with all assignments/essays so far) , so I guess all his lectures could be emailed to him

@latedecember1963, DS had an email from Durham saying lectures will be online. So he can watch from home

Durham only has one case and it's not in the uni, so I don't quite see why they're doing this bigTillyMint. The offer holder days happen in a couple of days when masses of kids from all the UK are in confined spaces - presumably those will be cancelled? The libraries are open. Students can go home after Friday but I don't expect they all will. I've suggested to DS that he gets all his stuff in order up there (he's a finalist) before he comes home (to one of the coronavirus hotspots of the UK to increase his chances of infection). (That will hopefully buy me enough time to sort out his room, if he takes any notice - unlikely :))

I meant couple of weeks for the offer holder days, not couple of days.

After a week at home with a mild winter virus, probably caused by cycling in the rain on a cold day, I can confirm it is really boring.

I know I did not need to stay at home, but equally I did not need to go out, and would have hated any guilt if it had been anything serious. And in central London I could have been in contact with anyone.

I think the problem of doing anything too early is that people will get bored and complacent, and then such measures become less effective when really needed.

But there is a huge level of guesswork.

It is getting closer. The Bristol Tab has reports of someone in halls testing positive and DD says there is a second. She knows someone who is being tested.

DS' University in the US is closing a week early for spring break and will then operate remotely for at least 3 weeks.

Lectures online are better than nothing. I suppose the universities also have a duty of care for their teaching and other staff.

He's not in education but one of DH's job roles is to lead mentoring sessions with groups of local high school pupils who are not meeting their expected targets based on their YR6 SATs. The next meet up is in a couple of weeks and he expects it to be postponed.

I think DDs lectures all get recorded and put online anyway (afaik she still attends in normal times) but I don't know what may happen to labs and exams after Easter. She wasn't planning to come home for the vac anyway, we're inclined to think if she can stay put that's better for her.
3We're 59 and DH has several of the risk factors - normally well controlled with a bagful of prescriptions each month, but it puts us in the group inclined to take CV19 rather seriously. He started looking at the info from Wuhan in January - we cancelled the holiday booking to Sicily in May a month ago at the point where we only lost the deposit. At that point he was mainly thinking it would be prudent to avoid airports and that we could go somewhere in the U.K. but it's increasingly looking like we might really be putting the 'stay' in staycation. (We had a similar trip to Sicily booked 2 years ago which got cancelled due to his heart problem , maybe we'll try again in 2020 and either it'll be third time lucky or Etna will erupt...)

(I meant 2022 in the last sentence.)

Hope your DH stays well, Errol.
Just had a quick video call with DS2 for his 21st. He's off out to a comedy show with some mates.

I hope we all stay well! The one mercy in the characteristics of this virus is that hopefully the kids will be ok, albeit with disruptions to their studies.

LSE has gone virtual.

www.avinteractive.com/territories/uki/lse-first-uk-university-go-virtual-12-03-2020/

Probably easiest for the LSE - do they do any STEM or other courses with any practical components?

As you say latedecember1963, far more straightforward for those doing humanities than for those needing to do labwork to complete modules etc.

Errol fingers crossed for 2022 then - very bad luck.

Cross post Errol. I don't see how closing labs is going to work - final year students can't complete their work. Haven't spoken to DS$, just messaged him to say maybe get your stuff in order as best you can before bolting home.

Right decision for the LSE. It is right in the centre of a crowded city, and using public transport is as risky as anything. It always had more of a work vibe than other Universities, so remote working will be in line with the times. They have had the advantage that staff seem to regularly vote against strikes, so up to now they have had a clear run. No STEM (god forbid!), however the sad thing is that it is the learning from other students, with that hugely international dimension, that it is its strength.

The concern for DD is that hospitals may be forced to close their teaching academics, mainly because they may need to redeploy teaching staff to patient care. The South West, as Stranger has suggested, seems particularly badly hit, and she says the hospital she is in, already looks quite different, with half the A&E closed and restricted entry to several wards. She is not worrying. She will need to do any practical training she has missed at some point, but thinks it is for the medical school to work out. They are not going to lose a generation of future medics. I guess like the rest of us, they may find that their lives are deferred for six months, but this seems a minor inconvenience.

I know all medical students at my hospital are now being sent home

Have Ben keeping up with posts in the background. Congratulations to those DCs with masters places and successful results so far.
DS just been in contact to say that after 4 weeks of strike action, all classroom based learning now cancelled because of Coronavirus. He has lab reports to finish off and hand in next week so probably not home earlier than the usual end of term date but it's a funny end to an odd term. Presumably exams will go ahead but who knows at the moment. Strange days indeed.

been of course.....Ben is busy watching my other social accounts for me

If they have to shut unis for the summer term, then a solution (in a world where many institutions could act in concert, quickly!) would be for this lot to go back for the autumn term and then thereafter university years would align to the calendar. This would then automatically solve the problem of making offers before A level results - freshers would have a term in which to sort all that out.

Chances of that happening .....

That's the kind of joined up thinking we need Errol especially with the time lost to strikes but as you, what are the chances?

Bristol is still open as far as I know although subject to strikes in relation to some of the lecturers (not all). My twins come home for Easter around weekend of 18 March. In fact I have been asking the children which Easter eggs they want today - one response so far. Time flies. We are all well. My older son's job is delivering supermarket groceries and they are obviously extremely busy. They have been told not to take the food into people's houses any more to reduce risks of contagion and to do door step deliveries only. He is also using a lot of wipes and that kind of thing.

I am sure Bristol's exams and next term are likely to go ahead as planned. One son starts law school on 7 September and other is going to work for half his gap year and travel for the other half with 2 of his housemates (current plan - that might change).

We will also be going to Italy as planned at the end of June on holidays if the foreign office advice is that it is safe by then - so fingers crossed...... Hope that doesn't mean we get stranded unable to get back for the July graduations but it probably will not be a start top, travel, not travel, do travel type of foreign office instructions but more of an all clear.

Very good idea Errol.

DS has heard that med students will be recruited to deal with the virus. It's in the hospital he's in and the local community. He feels it is completely inevitable that he will get it. I'm quite glad he's intercalating next year so will be a bit less patient-facing from September. I'm starting to feel quite scared now despite being the most logical science-led sort of person.

Meanwhile ds1 in Australia is panicking because all his bar and waitering work is drying up and he is struggling to pay his rent.

DD2 is now in her 4th year (integrated masters) and has her fingers crossed that the uni remains open as she needs access to the labs/workshops. She still hasn’t finished her final year project as she has been waiting for parts to be delivered. And she still has a group assignment to do. Due to break up for Easter on the 27th and then uni ski trip - which I doubt will happen.