Heading towards 4th year or post grad/jobs

[Xenia]

Continuation of the previous thread for those of us with children who are just finishing their 3rd year at university (so either "graduating" in 2020 or going into year 4 in Autumn 2020)..........

My twins' degree results will be out in late July. Good luck to everyone else waiting for finals results.

To add to the dark and gloomy news Ds1 has just tested positive, as have his 2 flat mates ( all final year med students)
Trying to look on the bright side at least he’ll be able to come home for Christmas
Hope DD won’t get stuck in Dublin she’s getting very demotivated doing all the masters online. Has not met one new person since she moved , bar her house shares and some elderly neighbours.

CarrieMac - 2 of DD's housemate have just tested positive, so she won't be home for her blood test on Monday. I am worried about her, because she is clinically vulnerable. She has promised to face time every day, so we can see how she's doing. They only seemed worried about not getting their Sunday roast and have been doing a zoom quiz today. It was taste and smell that affected her friends, but they are keeping relatively healthy apart from that so far.

@Carriemac, so sorry for your DD - it’s rubbish for those who have moved uni yet can’t make new friends. What is her masters in? My DD says most of hers are new to the uni, and a huge proportion from overseas. Very difficult for them to experience life in the UK

Carriemac I am sorry about your son's positive test. Most of the people my son in Bristol knows who have had it have had it very mildly. I don't know if his flat mate has her taste of smell back yet. I will ask him next time he calls. They are out of quarantine now. My son seems happy.

I think he will come back after his exams in mid to late December but obviously subject to any new legislation on movement restriction. As he and his twin are studying things like what is an Act of Parliament, what is a statutory instrument etc for the first time this term, I think they are more interested in legislation than before. His driving force is being with his friends so I expect he will mirror them (subject to the law) in terms of when they come home for Christmas, dates etc.

He has it mildly thankfully Xenia . DDs masters is in international law and a lot of her group are still in their home countries .

Hello everyone . I thought you'd all gone quiet as you fell off my threads I'm on. So glad I've found you!
I've just spent 10 minutes catching up on all the news and it's great to hear about the job offers. @Eve @Parker231*@ErrolTheDragon @Alittlewornout* (sorry if I've missed anyone!) It's specially good news for anyone to have managed to get good offers this year of all years.

Ds2 is back in Sheffield but his course only started 3 weeks ago so he basically went in to lockdown pretty much straight away. He hasn't met any of the other poor students on his course who have arrived from other unis (except online). It must be so tough for those who've moved into lockdown in a city where they know nobody,

We've just replaced ds2 at home with ds1 back from locked down Australia to newly locked down UK for an unspecified length of time. My mission while he's home is to try and get him to decide what to do with his life ie a proper job or at least a vague plan towards one - easier said than done for him with girlfriend the other side of the world.

I'm really sorry to hear about the positive tests. For those worried about students being able to come home for Christmas, DH's job is involved in preparing for the mass testing of students to allow them to travel safely. I know Boris doesn't exactly hold the record for forethought when it comes to planning for a crisis but it's reassuring (for me ) to know that there is a lot of work going on to make homecoming possible.

Glad your DS has made it back from Australia.

DS hasn’t heard anything from his Uni. He and his friends have now made their own plans. DS is delayed his drive home a couple of days as his friend has a face to face lecture he wants to attend and then DS will drop him off at his home before driving to us. Knowing DS everything is subject to change!

@Carriemac, I hope your DS continues to feel ok with the virus.

Cases in our area have rocketed this past week; and an additional testing station has just appeared nearby today.

DS2 only leaves his room to exercise in the garden and join us for meals. He seems to be enjoying his course, so that's good. He misses student life though. 😥
The milk disappears at an alarming rate still! 🐄

Hope your daughter just has a mild dose of C19, CarrieMac, especially as you can't just nip down a motorway to bring her home.

Glad your son got back safely, Haffdonga. You must be so pleased to see him. Is he pining for Australia ( and his gf of course!)?
Ds2 seemed to settle back into UK life very smoothly which I was relieved about. I suspect that he will want to travel again at some point.

My son (at home) got his last 2 workshops yesterday for this term on-line - an upload or something I think numbers 41 and 42 or something like that he straight away started looking at them, very interested which was really nice to see. I started telling him all about that law topic and he said what the materials said. Good reminder for me and I am glad he is enjoying it.

I spoke to his twin earlier but he was busy. There was a temporary inability to access the online system but it seemed to go back pretty quickly today so not an issue. I don't know how long it was down.

I am glad everyone's children have been getting home etc okay.

I'm keeping everything crossed that son will be able to travel from Scotland to Wales for Christmas....his area is currently level 3 but he can't travel home till 18th as has essays/ lab work due that week and can't do those remotely...there's only home and 1 flatmate in flat, and they're basically self isolating currently anyway

It is certainly getting complicated. I just had to answer a covid 19 question for a client and I had to look at 4 different sets of guidance and two statutory instruments just to get the answer.

I hope the Stopyour son make it home. I just spoke to my son in Bristol who says almost everyone he knows has had it or seems to be immune now. I think he will come home after his exams are over in mid December unless building noise next to the flat is too loud (he needs silence for the exams - yet another issue with on line exams)

Depressing news in Scotland today - large chunk of central belt going to tier4 for 3 weeks. Dd in Glasgow sharing with 1 other and they are barely leaving the flat. Hope she gets home for Christmas.

DD is on her last day of isolation tomorrow and hasn't caught it yet, so hopefully she won't. She's home for a rescheduled medical appointment next week, so if it looks like everything is shutting down, I think I'll suggest she stays home.

Yes, I heard that about that part of Scotland. It seems to relate to deprivation. It was the same down here - we had more covid 19 in March, mine and the other 2 boroughs near us in London, than anywhere in the UK as we have older people, loads of 3 generational households, people squeezed into small spaces, my borough has more beds in sheds than any in London and not far from airports like Heathrow. I think so many people had it down here (hospitals were full to bursting in March) probably we are a bit more likely to be immune now (if having it brings immunity at all of course - we don't even know that).

Glad some are getting home. Mine in Bristol was able to get to his optician's appointment at long last - had to cancel due to quarantine before - and his new glasses seem to have transformed his use of screens, does not get headaches if at the screen too long etc. So that is good news.

Long time lurker, very rare poster here, but been following these threads since the beginning. DD2 is in her final year in Hull, was in the US for her year abroad in her third year (which was cut short by 3 months sadly ). I found this guidance yesterday which is written for students at uni in Wales, but I don't imagine any English guidance will be very different.

The main thrust seems to be that students should come home as soon after 9 December as possible so they can "lay low" for 14 days at home (including as little contact with those at home as possible) and thus be (hopefully) free by Christmas. It really brought home to me the risks of lots of people travelling across the country all at once and I'm not sure whether everyone will follow it closely - or will be able to.

I've only really skim read it, but I don't think it has anything about the arrangements for going back - I imagine they would have to be similar.

DD hasn't had much information from Hull about any of it yet - or so she says, not sure how good she is at reading emails...

Hope this is of interest / use to some of you

I’m not sure how any Uni can say what date students leave. Some will be reliant on their parents collecting them, others will have jobs or other commitments.

@Parker231

I’m not sure how any Uni can say what date students leave. Some will be reliant on their parents collecting them, others will have jobs or other commitments.

I think the plan is a travel window of a week or two rather than a specific date for this reason. Unis are being asked to deliver 100% online from a certain date so that those who are still doing face to face learning can travel home within their window and carry on online.

And from the Welsh doc posted by @emsiewill it seems they're asking students who can't travel during the window to 'lay low' at uni for 2 weeks instead so they're safer to travel later.

I may be missing something vital but it seems to make sense to me.

DS has now been told that information will be sent to them but nothing as yet so students have been making their own arrangements, booking travel, parents to collect and getting lifts etc. DS is going to drop off one of his friends who lives north London and then drive to us in central London. Neither he or his friends have had Covid or know anyone who has. Seems to be less cases at Uni than in towns and cities around the country.

Thanks for that Welsh link. It is certainly a difficult issue to get right. Unlike the Parker son my son says just about everyone he knows in Bristol has had covid 19 or been exposed to it loads and tested negative and is just not catching it or is immune.

It is not fair on the state not to allow students to plan properly and not to have produced law rather than - we hope you will do XYZ - as it is the law that counts and what people must follow. I see the £10k fines have been withdrawn - one police force h ad issued 13 x £10k of them already - as they probably breach the law in some way because if cases went to a judge the level would be based on earnings eg a student would not be given £10k fine as some have been given. The power of these police state measures now in force has really gone to the heads of a lot of people who seem to have waited a lifetime to snoop on neighbours, have powers to stop people leaving home etc. Probably nothing to do with covid but last night TWO helicopters were going over and over our areas for 40 minutes. We thought it might be the army and I doubt it relates to covid 19. However it did keep me up.

I'd missed them being suspended, but this indicates that the £10K fixed penalty notices are being reintroduced?
www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-54977290

I read they'd been suspended for a few days?

Is your DD out if isolation now @SMaCM?

Last day of isolation today. She and her housemates are catching up on Netflix. They are going to stay home until the weekend, to make sure they are all germ free.

I'm not sure when she'll be home for Christmas, because she will be hoping to go back to work. She has lost enough earnings this term.

Well done on the jobs and commiserations on the positive covid tests.
My colleague has it and I am a close contact so I am now home for two weeks as of today. Hoping that ds doesn't get it.

Dd started her new job yesterday, all good so far.

(Thanks for the link that the £10k fines are back on again.... It is hard to keep up at times. Let us hope I don't have to pick an adult child who is excluded from Christmas lunch.......)