Government plan to lockdown students for two weeks?

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

So according to the Guardian, the government are planning to lockdown students from the 8th-22nd December, with online lectures only.

www.theguardian.com/education/2020/oct/14/ministers-plan-pre-christmas-covid-lockdown-for-english-universities

I've several thoughts:

Some universities finish their terms earlier than the 8th.

What is to stop a mass exodus on the 8th to avoid being locked down?

How can you isolate students who share bathrooms and kitchens? Two weeks wouldn't actually be sufficient. If student A develops symptoms on day 10, the rest of the household would still need to isolate for 14 days from that point.

DS's term finishes on 4 December.
For those who finish later, what would stop them from going home early and doing the last couple of weeks from home?
Do any university terms finish as late as 22 December?

It's the expense as well. If you only pay for term time accommodation, another 2 weeks of catering would completely blow your budget.

DD would come home early I think, and I would support her and take the chance on my own health. She has work lined up at home and as she's not been able to get a job where she is, she really needs the money.

I think DD is secretly hoping for Christmas locked down in Oxford.

My daughter finishes on the 18th. I'd like to see her come home and isolate here so she is free for Christmas Day.

Someone has misunderstood something - how can students remain on campus when they are not necessarily on it in the first place (living in digs)?

Also don't most terms finish about 11th? There would be no need to move to online teaching, as there wouldn't be any frigging teaching those weeks anyhow.

Both my DC's terms end on the 11th. I agree Ironoaks what would stop them coming home before that and doing their classes online for the last 4 days?

I disagree entirely with controlling the civil liberties of students and targeting them. And how do you control students living in private housing?

I don't think you could stop students going home early to avoid lockdown.
Especially the ones who have already tested positive some time earlier and done their enforced self isolation.

I think it will be optional, with a fifty percent take-up considered success by govt. And some students being bribed with free food or worry about relatives.

How can they stop them? Students don't wear uniforms.

Unless you have a nationwide travel ban for leisure.
And even then, what is stop people moving house?

I think it is a news item purely to test public response. Outcry equals think again, back to drawing board.

However, reading further it seems to only apply to those students who have tested positive or have symptoms or live with people with them.

"Under the plan, students with Covid-19 or its symptoms, and those who have been in contact with them, would have to remain in their accommodation for as long as their quarantine period demands"

Though why on earth anyone would be surprised that rates of infection are higher when students have been forced to stay in their high density housing with other infected people I can't imagine. It was a direct result of the restrictions placed upon them:

"Infection rates in some university cities are significantly higher among students than in the general population"

@Ironoaks

DS's term finishes on 4 December. For those who finish later, what would stop them from going home early and doing the last couple of weeks from home? Do any university terms finish as late as 22 December?

Yes. Edinburgh do a two semester year with exams before Christmas. It might be a Scottish thing. Latest my daughter finished was Dec 23rd.

Or turn campus into singing dancing theme park over Xmas, parties, suspension of covid testing, free food and live gigs..persuade students it is much preferable to stay than travel home to boring family. A sort of covid amnesty within confines of campus.

I think DD is secretly hoping for Christmas locked down in Oxford.

Same for my DD. Then she'd have a room to herself for her first Christmas ever.

The article doesn't really tell us anything except that no coherent plan has yet been formulated. I don't know what the point of the guardian or other newspapers scaremongering is, unless to foment further unrest

A few unis have moved to two semesters resulting in a shorter Christmas break and not finishing until the 18th. Like Hoghgyni DD2 is delighted to potentially have an excuse to spend Xmas with bf and her mates in her third year Uni house 😂. Currently swaying between that and coming come a couple of weeks early and isolating at home

DS is in Wales do goodness knows when anyone will be allowed in or out!

It says that students would have to remain “on campus” rather than “in their accommodation”. How’s that work for non-campus unis, or for all the students not living on campus?

This is another thing like “schools should do rigorous mocks using papers provided by exam boards” isn’t it? Worked out on the back of a beer mat by someone who has failed to talk to anyone who might know how things really work.

The best they can do is ask students to isolate before going home. Unis are mostly doing online teaching anyway.

@Nettleskeins

Unless you have a nationwide travel ban for leisure. And even then, what is stop people moving house?

I think it is a news item purely to test public response. Outcry equals think again, back to drawing board.

I think you are right. Time and again we've seen this approach.

I don't think it really makes sense. What if someone gets symptoms or tests positive on the 21st? They have to stay at uni for Christmas. That doesn't help Boris' goal of getting students home for Xmas. Whatever date for set someone could still get Covid at the end of it.

I have two at uni. Both in shared houses. One is being very cautious, not going out apart from one face to face session per week on campus & to do food shopping. Planned to come back mid Dec

The other will break up at the start of December so had planned to quarantine for 2 weeks before travelling home.

Both seem far more sensible approaches than the alleged government plan.

Good luck doing that with all the second years living in student housing all over the place! Not to mention the mature students who commute (or not as the case may be this year) in for sessions on campus - they're not fecking locking me down when I've not been onto campus at all this term!

This is a weird idea with mostly only 1st years living on campus and even some first years living private halls off campus, how on earth will they enforce it? Also most students finish on the 11th for Xmas.