University life for 'freshers' (2019/20) - first year campus life suspended, sitting out/surviving the pandemic and staying on top of studying [Edited by MNHQ at OP's request]

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@errorofjudgement, we are 5/6 hours away by car, but under 4 door to door by train. We took him up at the start and then visited at Oct half term. He got the train home at Xmas (and after to see gf ) and to come home because of CV. Didn’t plan to go up again this year TBH.
DD is at Bristol - 2/3 hours away and she is pretty independent on the Megabus, but we were able to get her late afternoon when CV lockdown and back by 9 so much more doable!

Re strikes, both DC say STEM students much less affected than Humanities students in loads of unis. So if she’s doing STEM, don’t worry about strikes

@Benjispruce, DS chose Durham because of its ratings and also because he really liked when he used to go and stay with old gf

NTU have clarified (one of DD's friends emailed) about leaving stuff and the rent being waived. They're able to collect stuff at a 'later date' and won't be charged...... so that's great, we don't have to make any decisions about rushing to pick stuff up now

Wop Wop. Thanks Raptor that is fantastic news and it takes away a lot of worry as my DS still has a lot of stuff in his halls.

He is really missing uni life and missing his new friends.

Mine ( at Durham ) is pleased next terms accommodation fees are being waived as she will have enough to pay her first terms houseshare rent - that has a secondary benefit for me too as if already given her 6k for accommodation last autumn .
She’s sad to leave college but does have a college officer role next year anyway so will still need to be there - clouds , silver linings etc .

Dd2 in private halls of uni at Liverpool had just had an email.saying she doesn't gave to pay the last lot of rent. She wasnt expecting this but its an extra grand in her pocket so shes happy.

DD is now home, obv, and has negligible running costs, so her £3.3k maintenance loan (God bless Wales' levels of funding) will barely be dipped into at all as she's a very low maintenance type of person. And we are feeding her obv.

More willpower than me then! I’m looking lustfully at ultra light laptops since I don’t need to spend on childcare and travel costs for next term. My current laptop is really well good spec but weighs a fucking tonne and is killing my back - I may well treat myself when my next loan comes in to something that is lighter for taking to and from campus and keep my high spec one for home use.

We’ve done the first of our online iterations of exams which took me fucking hours yesterday! Should have got a fairly good mark for it - despite the revision to online format meaning we were doing something completely different to what we’ve been practicing with all year in terms of the course content.

I know of only 1 piece of work that DS has done since he has been here, but know that he has at least 1 big assignment to complete by what would have been the end of the Easter holidays. It is hard for him to get back to the study mindset.

When his loan comes he is probably going to replace his phone as it has been giving him a lot of problems. It looks like he will have to pay the rent on his room, so he is just using the money he would have spent on food and socialising.

I can't get back into the work mindset at all either (technically we've not even broken up for Easter yet) - I'm trying to slog through the last of our "original" assignments (as opposed to the exams that have been turned into assignment format) and I just cannot get my head into it at all - especially with the kids at home. Thankfully I'd done enough to start it before campus closed that I can continue at home because it requires access to software only available on the now-closed university campus and a few people are stuck who've put off starting it till the last minute.

Dd is really struggling with being at home. She's missing her friends and the independence, and I think the stress of the situation is getting to her a bit as well. She was anticipating earning enough over Easter to more or less cover her deposit for the second year accommodation, but as that's restaurant work it's not happening. Thankfully Bristol are allowing them to leave belongings in their rooms, but no need to pay unless they go back. If she does get the chance to go back then she'll only pay for the weeks she'll be there.

We're still in the situation in our uni of half the halls having ended contracts early, and the others still holding firm - obviously outrage is ensuing and petitions and pointed open letters are the current tactic being used to try to force a u-turn (which I don't think is going to happen as the operators in question would whack an additional charge on for breathing if they could get away with it by all accounts). It's all a total mess and it's highlighted how much of a disaster it is having a bajillion different accommodation providers but centrally allocating it via the university rather than the older model of the university owning the halls for at least the first years.

I'm on here procrastinating over making more progress on my assignment basically - the bare bones are done - I just need to actually flesh it out and draw all the diagrams to go with it but motivation = zero, especially now the deadline for it has moved right back into mid-May.

We've had a few online sessions - they've varied in terms of their usefulness - from the guy who sits with camera and mic on and then does the entire session just by typing which is cringemaking to sit through, to one who pretty much ran a normal seminar session - which unfortunately descended into hilarity as it was linguistics and our generated sentences all involved panic buying toilet roll, social isolation and the like! If the kids weren't at home to be entertained I'd quite enjoy not having to drag my arse to the train station at stupid o clock and being able to sit at home with the telly on mute doing it all!

I think that some of the students who are being obliged to pay their rent are going to withhold payment and see what happens. DS has been in touch with the body from whom he actually rents (Fresh Student Living), but they say that they are just the letting agent and do not own the buildings, and cannot therefore fail to collect rent on behalf of the owners. As DS will be getting his loan, and still has stuff in his room, I don't see that he has a choice but to pay. On top of this, having failed to make other arrangements, he and a group of friends want to live there again next year.

Some of the private hall providers are really behaving badly, our DS has completely emptied his room (& I cleaned it - and took photographs). We are still waiting for the official line on payment for the third term but will probably ignore any request for payment, are the Halls really going to take every student to court over this?

And I said earlier on this thread that I am hoping that it is possible to just not have the maintenance loan for Term 3 if students are not going back. We can afford to keep DS at home, not much to spend money on anyway and we live in an area where he can get work on the farms.

I'm not sure how you would reverse the payment @ragwort, as it is automatically sent and I think it is due any day. I have chickened out of going to collect the rest of DS's stuff. We were going to go yesterday but he didn't get up early enough. I hope one of the other lads cleaned the kitchen. It was pretty grim when I last saw it. DS can't give back the keys either as there seems to be nobody there. I'll wait another week or two and see how things pan out.

My dd's private halls rental company have written to all students making it very clear that there will be no early ending of tenancies and no refunds. They say they are still supplying a habitable residence and are keeping hygiene standards high.

I wrote back on her behalf saying the tenancy has been 'frustrated' by the fact that uni is no longer open so the reason for renting is no longer there. However they were not budging.

We haven't yet paid for the third term so I will soon have to fork out £2000, knowing that DD will not be setting foot in the place. It's tempting to withhold payment but I don't want to get into some sort of legal trouble.

My DH wants to use Frustration of Contract as a reason for not paying 3rd term, too. That's why I want to go and get DS's things from, and clean, his room, but in the current climate it is difficult to justify the journey.

OH had a nasty e mail from Unite this morning because he cancelled the last of eight payments, following an e mail to DS stating that the last term would be refunded last week. I have banged off a reply quoting their e-mail last week, so lets see what happens. In their words on 26th March.

"If you wish to leave The Plaza early, and not return for the third term, you must email [email protected] before 5pm Friday 10th April to let us know. Once we have collected the necessary details and processed your release we will treat this situation as a return of your room (in effect a surrender of your tenancy agreement with us) and you will not have to pay your outstanding rental payment. If you have already paid for the third term up-front, you will be entitled to a rebate."

Simbobs, who is the landlord in your case? Dd's is Derwent Students.

@ZaZathecat it is Fresh Student Living. They have properties in quite a few cities.

Hi All. I lost the thread (in many ways) for a while as I've been ill with possible covid. Today is the 22nd day since the start of the illness and I finally feel recovered. A bit of a haul and I really didn't have it badly at all compared to lots of people.

DS heard today that most Prelims (end of first year) exams at Oxford are being cancelled, so he promptly gave up trying to work and took himself back to bed! He has been finding it pretty hard to motivate himself over the first part of his vacation, and I have certainly not felt up to cracking the whip. It is really hard for them. I am still in term time at my uni and lots of our students are clearly finding it impossible to motivate themselves with online work.

In other news - you may remember my DH has a brain lesion, which is still undiagnosed 7 months after it was discovered. He has been having some headaches the last few days and we have both been very anxious that it might be to do with the brain thing. His nurse specialist is arranging for an MRI so it is good to know that they are still investigating even in the midst of this chaos. A bit calmer now - there are so many other things it could be, including stress, virus symptoms (he had some very mild lassitude and flu-y feelings about a week ago), the fact that he hasn't been able to exercise, and so on.

I'm now off to catch up on the bits of the thread I've missed. I hope you've all been well.

Hope the mri scan gives some answers. Dd still being paid for her job in Liverpool even though she can't work so that's a bit of extra money too.

@ShrodingersKitty sorry to hear that you've been so poorly and that your DH has been having headaches. Good to know that they are continuing to monitor him and do required investigations.

Advice.... I feel I'm being too wishy washy with DS !! I don't want to keep nagging ...and he never argues with me as he is so laid back ... but he appears to have become nocturnal !!! .... what are you all doing ... getting them up ? Setting them chores ?