Oxford and Cambridge current students discussion thread

[sandybayley]

Starting a new one as we filled it up!

Can't believe DS1 will be home in 2 weeks. Must remember to adjust the Ocado shop for when he's back. I suspect we may end up with a few days of his favourite meals 😊

Given what ofteninaspinsays, it also sounds uneven within Oxford itself. I suppose different tutors and different bursars will take different views as to what properly qualifies a student to be exempted. But how closing catering in its entirely can help support returning students goodness knows, and there's no sense in closing a college library either. My other DC had widely differing experiences with their respective bursars, from completely delightful and constructive to *

That post lost a few asterisks in posting :) (I'd counted them out carefully too :()

The library at dd's Cambridge college is open. There isn't much consistency!

Just calculated that by the time they might be allowed back to university - in mid to late April (?) - DS1 and DS2 (who took gap years) will have spent only 9 weeks and 4 days away from home at all, since finishing their A level exams in 2018. That's out of about 23 months.

Sobering thought really that young adults ready to go out into the world, meet new people and have new experiences, will be once again stuck at home for the next 4.5 months. Mustn't forget they can of course go out once a day to exercise....

Both seem to be keeping in good spirits as best they can and still feel lucky not to be in the midst of the public exams fiasco but it's not ideal and meanwhile, so many of their peers are back at uni. already. However, we calculated the financial saving of them not paying for college accommodation and that cheered us up a bit, although I've no idea how colleges will cope with yet another term of lost income from that source.

DD's college has let one of her course mates back - she is still not tempted. She is working to the timetable she would be if she was in college (I haven't pointed out she has started a week early).

I saw somewhere that Oxf students should be able to access eBooks from the library. I will try to find the info again...

The colleges all have significantly more reserves than most of the students mutterphore! (Possibly not all. I'm allowing for eg a Russian oligarch DC somewhere in the Oxbridge student body).

I am a bit miserable about it all today. DD went back to Cambridge to do a 4th year when her grad job was cancelled in June. She has taken on a really practical research project that involved labs every day and was loving using the 3D printers, the laser cutters and working with the postgrads. She had just had her work plan confirmed for the upcoming term and now the whole project has to go online. It will basically be computer modelling as far as she can tell. It’s not the end of the world but I am so disappointed for her especially as she should have been working by now if the wretched virus had not emerged. Instead of that, she is sitting in London at a laptop and not even being allowed to live in her lovely room in Cambridge. Grrrrr

@goodbyestranger

The colleges all have significantly more reserves than most of the students mutterphore! (Possibly not all. I'm allowing for eg a Russian oligarch DC somewhere in the Oxbridge student body).

Some of the relatively new colleges don't have massive reserves. Maybe Trinity will buy them up.

DD has had confirmation that she doesn't need to pay rent while she isn't occupying her room (even though she left it full of her things).

goodbye

Gosh, that's a shame chitchattery.

DD is fortunate that quite a lot of her 4th year 'lab work' can be done at home, she's hoping that the parts which aren't will be allowed under the exception for where it's required for accreditation.

@goodbyestranger, I only have experience of this one Oxford college but I can see that it’s size and layout makes social distancing/isolating difficult (narrow winding staircases, shared bathrooms, tiny pantries). The annexe though is modern, has 80 en-suite bedrooms and large kitchens so there is logic in using it this term. It’s usually occupants are second and third years so their stuff is already there. Anyone staying for vacs usually moves there too. The “return”criteria are strict so I suspect that those that meet them probably didn’t head “home“ for the whole Christmas vac anyway so I don’t think many first years will be lugging stuff between sites.
The college has a good rep for welfare and DD has found it to be generous in funding extras.

@ErrolTheDragon I think my DD is hoping that they will find it too hard to re-jig her course and will let her back at some point to do some hands-on work. There is no accreditation issue though so I think she is clutching at straws!

At least they are first years; pity the finalists who had their second and now last years severely curtailed. It will be better and soon. DD ( C) worried about access to source material most of which isnt digitalised (?sp) for this term’s paper but has enough sense to see that quality of life in college , however liberal and supportive, would be necessarily much harder this term than last and perhaps more importantly a supportive DoS and supervisor who are being really proactive on her behalf re work. Rent saved can be daydreamed into a summer trip etc, etc ( not too rigidly planned!!). Unless my maths is even worse than I thought, it’s 3.5 months @mutterphore , not 4.5 ( clutching at positive straws!)

That is certainly the message given by DD’s college @hobbema, this term has to be more restrictive than the last.
DS’s C college has a more liberal approach and is keeping everything open. Two of DS’s household have permission to return which has unsettled DS somewhat today as he would love to return too.

What is the college doing with the kit that non returners have left in the annexe rooms though ofteninaspin? I don't see how it works in practice. Perhaps the annexe has unoccupied rooms but on the whole I'd have though letting people go back to their Michaelmas Term rooms made more sense. I definitely don't see that making everyone go self-catering is a good plan at all. DD's college is continuing with catering and its library is open, so luck of the draw I guess, as with so many things.

And yes absolutely hobbema. Poor finalists indeed. Also, it seems to me as though our DC had a golden ticket compared to this year's Y13s. Ours completed their sixth form with just a bit shaved off at the end - no comparison to a messed up Y12 compounded by a messed up Y13. I feel for almost all young people in fact, for different reasons but seem to be surrounded in our area by the even older than me generation who in early December were moaning about the vaccine only being 90% proof, then segued onto moaning about only getting the first dose, and are now moaning about having had the foreign vaccine rather than the English one.....

I know, vaccine racism, you couldnt make it up!! There is just so much to be angry about it’s overwhelming. I’m doing my best to concentrate on what I can change but goodness me it’s hard. Really feeling the pressure clinically in our neck of the woods since Xmas which I think has helped the DC see the bigger picture.

Annexe rooms have to be emptied at the end of every term @goodbyestranger. In normal times they are used for conference attendees.

The end of this Michaelmas Term was different ofteninaspin, that's why I wondered if these rooms were empty. If so, they're about the only ones in the uni.

My DC know that staying put (at home) is for the collective good but it would be so much easier if the rules were interpreted and applied consistently.

I'm back again after a really stressful week teaching. I had to have a LFT at school but my DDs talked me through it all so it was ok. Then I have spent 2 afternoons in my primary school with the key worker & vulnerable kids (but it was quite fun).

DD1 at C has permission to go back next weekend. This is due part to our dire broadband and partly about her Masters project. @chitchattery I feel really sorry for your DC. That's so tough. @ofteninaspin's DS is at DD's college and they have been really good about taking individual circumstances into account. This college was not my DD's first choice, but she really landed on her feet with them. We are so impressed with the care and practical advice she has received.

This w/e I am taking my other DD back to her uni. She lives in a private rental with 4 others. She is also a scientist with labs to do. Her timetable came through today and whilst most is online, she does have some face-to-face meetings each week. I'm resigning myself to the fact that they might not be home until the summer, but needs must.

Thank you all again for your support over the last week or so. It means a lot.

Goodbye, DD isn’t in the Annexe but was allowed to leave one box sealed and labelled in her room. This has always been the procedure at the end of term. Sometimes the box is put in storage (if a room is booked out during the vac or if a room needs decorating) and it magically appears again at the start of the next term. The boxes are supplied by college.

@chitchattery, that is so disappointing for your DD. Really feel for all final year DC stuck at home.

Thanks all for your kind comments. As I say, it isn’t the end of the world. It all needs to be kept in proportion. Fingers crossed for next term...

How are your DC coping with being at home? DS had an essay deadline yesterday and has a flurry of online interviews this week for Spring Weeks (internships). I am braced for inevitable broadband contention.
DD is closing in on the deadline for a piece of work that contributes towards her degree. It’s in lieu of the usual research project that was cancelled in Trinity and DD really doesn’t know if she is on the right track. Her tutor hasn’t got much idea either and seems to be dealing with WFH issues of her own.
It’s only 0th week (O)....

dd is struggling to create the sort of routine that she does in college. She will get there, but its not easy. We keep selling the upside of it. Home cooking, access to the playstation and tv (that might not help) but it is lonely for her.