Another path to greatness - part III

[chopc]

Here is the new thread

Well, just in case anyone is feeling frustrated by the lack of news, be glad your dc aren't waiting for medical offers.... DD has had her one and only offer last night! Talk about stringing it out, the last year has been a tortuous ordeal that I'm so glad to be done with.

Brilliant news @Millylovespuddles! Such a long wait for her. How does she feel about it?

@Millylovespuddles
Congratulations to your Dd! What a relief for her.

We are all thrilled - after her O redirection, she had two more rejections last week, and finally the news we were waiting for yesterday.... what a slog! And it is her 2nd choice uni too.

Amazing @Millylovespuddles ! Many congratulations to you all!

@Millylovespuddles

Well, just in case anyone is feeling frustrated by the lack of news, be glad your dc aren't waiting for medical offers.... DD has had her one and only offer last night! Talk about stringing it out, the last year has been a tortuous ordeal that I'm so glad to be done with.

Wow fantastic news, so happy for you. Well done to your dd 😀

Aww .. chuffed for her . It’s been so hard for some of our dc this year

If your DC struggle to get paid employment over the summer, please get them to think outside the box a bit. Volunteering is never a waste of time. Sadly no money but it ticks a lot of other boxes. The supply of paid work could be a bit thin on the ground.

Also thinking about what might help with a future career is worthwhile. For some courses DC will already have done this but so many DC don’t give sufficient thought to what might help whilst they are at university.

I think most employers look wider than Gold DofE - a bit of a MC thing in my view. Other DC should be able to demonstrate suitable attributes without doing that.

If anyone is after volunteering ideas that can be done from the comfort of your own bedroom (in DS's case) he volunteered for two year for the National Archives transcribing microfiched and then scanned to him copies of records which he typed up to be part of a searchable database. His was a joint project with the National Maritime Museum but they have a number of remote volunteering opportunities on their websites for any historians out there and I know there are a few of them ( and possibly younger siblings).

Thanks for that @SeasonFinale . I have never heard of such a thing and just looked it up.

Where is your DS starting @Oldowl ? And did DD ever make it back on campus?

@chopc

LSE advised all students not to return to halls unless they were international and had travel arranged or they had a home situation that was not conducive to university studying. All lectures/classes/exams are online until September.

The campus has only one building and the library open, but both required a negative covid test to enter. So DD has studied from home since December.

Sounds grim for a first year university experience @Oldowl . How does DD feel about it?

She had 8 weeks in Halls, and 5 weeks of some f2f classes. 2 of those weeks were spent in quarantine as there was a positive case on her corridor. They were not allowed off their corridor for the two weeks and were asked to stay in their rooms apart from using the bathroom.

Grim!

I think it is grossly unfair to charge people for tuition fees and accommodation as per previous and give them an open university experience. Ok last year they were caught unaware but if they repeat it this Sept, it will be unforgivable.

The government has really neglected university students and I am sure has given rise to a lot of mental health issues as well as financial because some parents would in effect be paying twice to have their students live out and to have them at home.

I am not exactly sure what the government could have done other than order sudents back to university and lecturers to teach. The universities are funded by fees. So do we close universities because the fee income is halved if we give refunds? (some do need to go - a cull is overdue) I think the DC will still have a degree at the end. Just not a decent university experience.

I heard this morning that some staff are "teaching" lecturers at least 4 times over to reach the standard cohort of students that would normally attend (science subjects). This makes me think: how do they have the time? My DH, when working flat out for his own business could not have done the same thing 4 times over with time in a day/week to do that? So what is not being done to give them all this extra lecturing time? Some of the claims seem somewhat bizarre if lecturers were working full time before.

Perhaps when you put it all on line, you do not need to actually show up in future? Just do a Q and A after your recorded lecture? Is this why they are not ensuring all lectures happen in person in September? There seemed to be a lot of "well X might happen and Y might happen" regarding the pandemic on the radio this morning. Not much about students. Far more about lecturers being safe and predicting a very turbulent future for students.

Percy, did your DH not have labs when he was a student?

Universities have no idea what will be possible in September. New variant, social distancing, overseas students unable to travel.....

DD has had no in person teaching during her year in London. Researchers and post grads get priority for lab space. Distancing means that whilst her tutors lab would normally fit four students it can now just take one. In addition there is a lot of critical medical research going on, and DD suspects they don’t want to take additional risks by having more people than they need in the building. DD has had to take tests locally twice a week, so presumably they have been keeping an eye on the risk UGs pose. .

So basically crap. Except that the on line teaching and testing, other than a few hiccups, has been first rate, and DD is really enjoying the course. So on the crapness scale she feels she has had a far more constructive year than many others her age.

As we seem t ohave fuond the magic money tree and are handing money out hand over fist including massive armounds of CV19 loans to the mafia and fraudsters I don't see why we could not half university fees students pay and the state make up the rest and have a fund so you get all your private sector rent back at £7k a year etc if the course has been on line.

I think it would be helpful to know as well. eg my sons start a one year law course in London in September and I don't know if it will be 100% online as their course this year has been or not nor what is planned - eg they could issue a statement saying we think it unlikely to be in person do not rent London housing or it is likely to be face to face so do rent London housing. Or as it will be on line we will charge the same fee as the cheapest of the institutions we offer the same course - which is about £4k less than if you do this course in London (even though this year the course is on line and identical with them wherever you do it).

Crikey - I really hope all our dcs have a better Uni experience in September 2021.

@PresentingPercy - Oh they definitely look wider than Gold DofE, which is a good thing as none of my dcs have done it or are planning to! But DH's mate just said that if he sees it on a CV he has a closer look as they often seem to be good candidates. I must emphasise, that's his opinion, not mine!

Exactly @Xenia. I am taking the opportunity to save money on a professional course based in Nottingham instead of London as it's cheaper because it is online. Students should have had the same option

However if my DS is going to get his degree online we will all be so upset - it's not about just getting the degree. The whole university experience is transitioning between between living within the family home and gaining independence and the last chance to have no responsibilities and have fun!

@Needmoresleep your DD situ is a little different as she has already had two years of student life and will have three more once she goes back to her "home" Uni. Most students on a three year degree programme won't have that option.

For a Durham student not being able to live in college in the first year is a huge loss. For most students in fact as Uni accom is only guaranteed for the first year.

Well no one knows what will be happening in Sept but continually saying the worst case scenario is likely, students won’t be in Labs or lecture theatres then either. What DH did a long time ago isn’t really important. I’m just saying that the universities will still say the degrees have been completed whether DCs think they have value for money or not. Who knows if they will truly be competent?

I’ve no doubt each student could have been credited with some money re student loans for the maintenance element. Not too late to do it either. If this continues into 21/22, they will have to. I wouldn’t want to be a shareholder in student accommodation either if no one wants uni accommodation because they can study at home.

@Vargas
I think DofE can be useful but yomping for miles isn’t always best prep for jobs. The other elements can be!

I think the problem was some students felt they were led up the garden path last summer with promises of face to face teaching which did not pan out at all and they accept their places on that basis so they are more wary this summer because they know what was "promised" did not transpire.

Chopc, I don't disagree, nor would DD, though she is sad socially she has lost her entire time in London.

My point was really that some Universities have adapted well to online learning, and staff really have gone the extra mile. The lack of socialising is a pain, but then they are all subject to restrictions, whether at University or not.

I was detailing the problems of providing f2f teaching even with a subject where this is allowed, which my daughter's subject is, as there seemed some suggestion that the failure to provide or to promise f2f in September was in some way the University's fault. I wanted to give credit for the work that has been done.

The pandemic has not been kind to young people making their first steps into adult life.

I've just been googling on line volunteering. I didn't even know this was a thing!
DS breaks up in the middle of May. He will have a lot of time on his hands

@Millylovespuddles so pleased for your DD! Where is she off to, or would you rather not say?

DS and DD's schools have not confirmed the dates that they will break up (both exam years) - I'd vaguely assumed June but maybe it will be end of May then based on all your experiences!