Study in the time of COVID-19 (2019/20 intake): online learning, the rule of six and who knows what's next? Anything could happen!

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from the previous thread as our young adults start their second year at universities up and down the land (and some overseas too!).

I am desperately hoping Newcastle isn’t like this. DS has been looking forward to it so much, and has been so pragmatic about the restrictions.

My final year DD is in Newcastle, and although she is a classic introvert has managed to contract covid within 2 weeks of returning. She only went out once, so tell your DD to be very careful. It is normally such a happy student city but times are far from normal.

He ( and we) are almost resigned to him catching it at some time. He can’t stay locked in the flat, though he’s going to be careful about crowded places.

I hope your DD recovers quickly @simbobs

Thank you. Best of luck to your DS.

DS is going back into halls with his girlfriend both as fresher helpers. Pre covid they expressed a preference to be in a flat together with some other friends. In previous years they have generally been spread out, perhaps 2 second years being in a flat together with freshers.. Anyway they've now heard that they have all been split up. Seems unfair because they won't be able to socialise properly. DS has written to the warden asking if him and girlfriend can be put in the same flat since they've been together for a year and he obviously doesn't want to break any rules. He's been told no changes are allowed!

@LaBelleSauvage123

Has anyone read the thread about university experience being awful this year? I have to say it’s really depressed me!

No, but I have read some desperately sad posts on Facebook.

What is this FB group you mention?

What I Wish I knew about University.

It is a support group for parents of students and potential students. There are some posters on there who get a little bit OTT about their little darlings leaving home, but this year it really has been a car crash.

Thanks - will take a look!

Anyone finding at least some solace in our DCs being in slightly more controllable private accommodation and maybe with self-picked groups more likely to look after themselves?

MrKlaw a little bit.

However just read this which would probably break most parents resolve (and god knows what it will do to the number of first years dropping out):

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the UK government does not "rule out" telling university students not to go home at Christmas to avoid spreading infection if the coronavirus crisis worsens.

Thanks goodness! Found you all. The thread titles are starting to get a bit confusing and I found myself on the other ‘university 2020’ thread, 3 pages in before I realised they were all first yrs😅.

I haven’t read the updates here yet so hope I’m not posting ‘off key’.
So, dropped DS off in Cardiff yesterday. Lovely accomodation! I had been so worried and sad he hadn’t made any friends to move in with but he’s in one of those private student halls....what a difference! Mirrors on the walls, fixtures to hang things (including the bathroom), bright large window room facing the light overlooking the lovely outdoor common student area (not the grotty wall and weeds of last yr where DS kept his blinds permanently down).A double bed! & with drawers. Lovely indoors common area with TV, snooker table, snack vending machine, post boxes! Honestly I could go on and on (like I haven’t already), DS has to practically push me out yesterday as I kept repeating how lovely it was and snapping photos (he frowned in all of them). So second yr here we come!
Hope everyone else’s dc has or is settling in well.

Forgot to add, and the new place is same as last yr

Yes @MrKlaw I did think to myself that a lot of the year 2 and 3 students should be happier in their accommodation as a lot will be with friends, compared to the first years who won't know people. Great if they get on. But many don't. Ds didn't really form any friendships with the people in his first year accommodation.

I'm not sure they will stop students going home for Christmas. They aren't stopping people going abroad...they just have to isolate on their return. The students will just have to do the same. Though as long as he's happy I don't mind if Ds stays at his student home for Christmas. I can live with that. But he's near enough for me to meet up with him (if we are still allowed to) so it's probably different for us.

Surely MH cannot forbid uni students travelling home at Christmas? Not unless he also forbids any other citizens of high prevalence areas travelling to other areas at Christmas or even says school kids can’t visit family at Christmas in case they spread it too? It is all getting ridiculously emotive.
Agree it feels a bit safer that they are in smaller house-based bubbles tho I am not sure how restricted they are all being - DD can meet others in the pub but not in her house, landlord can send in maintenance man into her house (breaking Rule of Six) but partners can’t visit? I suspect they are doing their own risk assessments and tbh I support that to keep their MH robust, the freshers thread is heartbreaking 😢

Please don't think that they are safe in their private accommodation with their friends, unless they are en-suite with a camping stove and don't plan to leave their rooms. DD in a flat with 1 other and caught it about 10 days after returning.

But, how bothered should we be? Apologies to students with underlying health conditions, who need special care, but instead of wailing and bemoaning should we not just accept what is likely to happen and allow the petrie dish to thrive? If most students catch the disease within the next month they should be safe for Christmas. Resources should be put into making sure that they are fed and that their health and wellbeing is monitored by the universities. They should have seen this coming a mile off. We need to keep them together, reopen bars and common rooms so that they will stay in their own areas. Touch paper lit...

Of course the govt cannot ban students from travelling anywhere without introducing house arrest! They are adults in private rented accommodation who happen to be studying not some kind of special category that can be imprisoned.

I agree with the sentiment that it may actually be a good thing if this virus rips through the students sharpish as long as they do properly isolate - although (hypocritically I know) I’m pleased not to live in a student town.

@simbobs, I am hoping exactly that - that they will catch it and be non-contagious by the Xmas hols.

Has my DS been taken by the body snatchers? He was up for his Asda delivery at 9am and FaceTimed me to show me that he had put it all away, put all his stuff away in his room and wanted to know how to operate the washing machine Why are washing machines so complicated? They could just have one or two settings!

Surely MH cannot forbid uni students travelling home at Christmas?

He can try but whether anyone follows it is another thing.

I know that there is no chance of earth that Dd wouldn't be coming home for Christmas. They can threaten and issue fines all they like but if she wants to move home for 2-3 weeks over Christmas she will be doing so.

It’s really difficult isn’t it. At DD’s large comp school there are 2 ‘half’ year groups and a teacher off due to positive tests. The teachers aren’t supposed to be within 2m (so they can still work if a pupil goes off) but one was stood over Dd and touched her hand as they flicked through her book. She hasn’t even been that close to her grandma in 6 months.
With all that in mind our university Dd is probably less likely to get it than we are.

Thanks @VanCleefArpels - I have forwarded your post to my 2 DDs to stop them from feeling terrorised by this Govt!!! There were only 4 positive tests over a 7 day period where one is studying, and 0-2 where the other one is! Really, I think there should be more concern over their isolation than over a virus that I think they already had in March which I nursed them through. It is grim doing everything online and never seeing anyone. Lecturers are just dumping reams of stuff on overhead slides, giving a 30 second voiceover and leaving the students ti deal with it alone. I think open university would be better.

A ban on travel at Christmas even if those universities which do not allow you to stay over Christmas made emergency accommodation would be quite difficult to enforce.

If it were a travel ban more generally applying to everyone so eg no moving from outside the M25 into it those are quite hard to enforce although I suppose if the university had a rule that if you breach the rules you lose your place that might be effective. I hope it won't come to any of that as it would be very wrong in my view on all kinds of levels.

Dd is doing a primary ed course so in January she will love from virtually no face to face to being in a school on close contact with no SDing and no masks etc.

If they threatened that xenia based on so little face to face many students may well just come home just before it came in and not return, just doing the virtual seminars and lectures instead.

They didn't have a travel ban from March so would be a big step back to do that this time round.

I suspect this is just another threat that they know is unenforceable.

@bigTillyMint Thumbs up to your DS. Mine said he was going to get a bag of change for the washing machines as he had real problems with this last year. Frankly he never uses cash and the laundry is exact change only - archaic!

Matt Hancock didn't say students cannot go home for Christmas, though I don't know where the story originated. He was asked about it on Radio 4 and said something to the effect of them preferably not going home for weekends in term time but it would be too much to ask them to stay on campus at Christmas, though nothing ruled out. It obviously cannot be an edict.

As far as unis go in general it is proper that they make it a safe learning environment for staff and students, but some of the stories that I have read here and elsewhere beggar belief. Students know enough at this stage to mitigate their risk but being made to eat in solitude, as described seems ridiculous.

My DS has only one or two face to face sessions and they are both on Friday. He is wondering whether he will actually learn anything and even end up with a degree. He is despondent without having gone back yet.