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.

Vingt it's a good idea to try and plan something to look forward to.

DD can't do her research, because she has to do it on campus and campus is closed. Her research subjects are also scattering around the country. She is getting no response from anybody about it. I have advised her to get a paper trail, so she can show why she hadn't already started and it was out of her control.

I'm thinking at the moment, it is best for her to stay with her housemates, because she would not be happy stuck in the house with us for any extended time. She has become too independent after being at uni. We love to have her home, but she needs to spread her wings now.

Bristol graduations are still on but they will keep that under review. The university teaching finishes tomorrow but I believe the facilities are open such as the library etc and lots of students cannot go home of course as they have nowhere to go. Plenty will be having to stay at Bristol over the holiday because they cannot fly home too.

"The University is open, and classes are running as normal in line with official guidance. The last official date of term is Wednesday 18 March, although teaching and tutorials may finish earlier for some students.

Teaching starts again on 20 April in line with our normal term arrangements. We encourage all students to get the maximum benefit from your learning community on campus.
Although formal teaching will stop after Wednesday 18 March, University buildings will stay open and you will be able to access facilities as usual unless you are notified otherwise."

The good news is that DD has been offered a place on one of the intercalation courses she applied to for next year. Not her first choice, but she is still very happy, not least because it is somewhere that rejected her three years ago.

The less good news is that she returned from Bristol and prompt;y started a high temperature, which means that the rest of us have temperatures, and that we are all on lockdown for 14 days. No one feels very ill, so not a huge issue. I do hope there develop some sort of anti-body test so that people can know if they actually had a mild version of the virus, and could then go off and volunteer or do something useful. However a German statement today about lockdown possibly lasting two years, plus Boris' rapid policy reversal suggests that scientists are concerned people (herds) who have been infected, are not building up that all important immunity.

Sleep mine is back from Bristol today too, no temperature thank goodness. I hope your DD is OK.

Sorry Horsemad I thought you had one at Bristol.

DS1 thinks he might be sent home from his placement on Friday as they will reduce to only critical and essential staff on site.

DS2 thinks college will cease sometime this week.

I may have to go panic buy - 2 teenagers at home fulltime!

I'm well enough to be googling Majestic Wine home deliveries.... though feel for those who are properly ill. Some accounts of having CV sound really awful.

The surprise then is how much extra food is needed. I had been successfully losing weight as I was happy with one meal a day, plus the odd tomato or carrot or bowl of muesli. Our hoarding is about a month's supply of things we would eat anyway, mainly pasta, and pretty boring. I am expecting complaints from DD, who certainly has not lose her appetite.

RedHelen, which medical school is saying medics go straight into fourth year? Bristol have an existing problem because they moved the intercalation from the end of the second year to the end of the third, creating a temporary bulge, which has been quite hard to manage. They need some current third years to intercalate so this bulge does not continue. There is no way DD can make up what she will miss from now to June/July. That said she is busy writing up her notes on the placements so far as luckily a friend is on the other side of the rotations, so has done the things DD has not done and vice versa. Her poor friend is effectively stuck in Bristol as a member of her family will need to be very careful indeed. It is such a mess.

Needmoresleep, I'm pretty certain that's what my daughter said was happening at Newcastle. I'll learn more when she's home tomorrow but she says the dental students are the only ones in limbo right now.

Liverpool have cancelled summer graduation ceremonies. I hope DS will have the opportunity to graduate at some point, but I can understand them cancelling, so people know where they stand.

Luckily we are only an hour away, so wouldn’t stay overnight.

Sorry to hear about illness Needmoresleep.

Durham has now closed its library and almost every facility until further notice and is going to let all students know tomorrow what's been agreed about a 'new approach to examinations'.

Oh dear Needmoresleep Get well soon to you and your dd. Best outcome may be you both get the virus but have it extremely mildly and both develop resistance. Or not at all.

My DS came home today. All lectures are online so we decided to get him home while he is well. At least when we all come down with it we can look after him and he us. He has lots of work to finish, lab reports etc and exams to revise for but still no definitive answer of what form those will take if they happen. He is on integrated masters so it's not his final year but it is sad for them all. Strange times indeed.

My uni shut yesterday and moved all teaching online. Very uncertain what is happening with exams right now and I’m just trying to crack on with my diss and revision. I can’t hekp but feel very sad and flat that after three years this is how my uni journey ends.

By the way some businesses are buying covid-19 test kits to test workers as it is not that easy to obtain a quick NHS test unless you are in hospital. If anyone is interested (and I have no symptoms and no commercial interest in this) they can be bought on line privateharleystreetclinic.com/products/covid-19-test for £375 a time. Various of the newspapers have had articles about that and mentioned which companies are buying from that source.

Good luck to those revising for exams. I am not sure when my sons will be back from Bristol for Easter as the university , library etc are all open (but no lectures but mind you no change there for some of their lecturers as some have been on strike - not all) but I am happy if they don't come home at all or if they come briefly or for 3 weeks.

It is a chaotic time for us and then isn't it?
Ds is currently on a years industrial placement in Europe. His manager got him and the other 2 placement students together yesterday and is sending them back to the UK for the time being.
He is pleased to becoming home for a while but is disappointed that he has been unable to finish his research in the lab.
He hopes to get back before August to finish his research but who know?
He has his report to write and uni modules to complete so he won't be idle.

I should have proof read that. Sorry!

Temperatures have returned to normal in our household. DD says she has picked up all sorts of bugs during her first clinical year, so a random mild virus is not unusual. Apparently we need to wait a certain number of days after symptoms have gone and then we can venture out.

It's been quite funny. GPs were phoning her yesterday about self-isolation, and her brother was messaging her. It means that she has had to search for good clear guidance. This generation of medics, may have foreshortened training, but will be experts in public health and epidemiology.

LegallyBrunet well done for cracking on with your work. Like you say, it's not the big fanfare ending and parties you we're hoping for, but it sounds like you're on track to get your degree. Well done.

Good news - DD can't get to her research subjects, so the uni are going to give her some dummy data, that she can write up and analyse. She's a bit disappointed, because she was really excited to see the results, but I guess she can always visit it again if she does further study.

They are having open book exams. They are basically going to be assignments that have to be written (typed) on the day between 10 and 3.

That's good.

Universities typically have a few clever people knocking about in them, I'm sure they can work out all sorts of alternatives for a lot of stuff!

DDs department has officially closed, whatever they do next term will be online. She anticipates that the third year lab projects will be replaced by coding projects or suchlike. Not sure what some of the scientists will do ... maybe it will be a bulge year for developing expertise in in silico rather than in vitro and vivo techniques.

She's probably going to decamp to her boyfriends home; the college is staying open but at this point she reckons reducing numbers to those who really have nowhere else to go will make it easier for them to manage.

DD says Leeds Uni has basically closed from today - even the labs are closed now. And exams will be online and open book. She says she is coming home on Friday but is still planning to go back after Easter ....don’t think she realises that the bars and pubs will still be shut then!

And now it sounds as though the university is totally shutting, apart from research labs (some of which, of course, are working on Coronavirus research)

DS has come home today, panicked by the lockdown rumours (and the fact that all his friends have left and he has an empty fridge).

He has no idea when they'll be able to go back on hospital placements again but is very worried that he'll have missed some important chunks of his training and there seems to be no time in the rest of his course to fit those in.

We are picking DD and her mate up in case London locks down. She doesn’t really want to come home but it seems better than getting stuck in Bristol

DS is very worried about a potential lockdown, he’s at the opposite end of the country and as a placement student not critical staff though Rest of the company are. He can’t work offsite and would like to come home.

Mine is still saying he's staying, even though a few flat mates have already left. 🙄