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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Return to university

381 replies

SouthCoastShell · 05/04/2021 18:04

I've just watched all of Boris's announcement and he doesn't mention when students can return to university. Does anyone know when students are allowed to return?

OP posts:
Pepermintea · 12/04/2021 17:43

Here's another petition, started by students I think, if anyone wants to sign
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/582345

Newgirls · 12/04/2021 19:29

Thanks signed

Newgirls · 12/04/2021 19:30

[quote Pepermintea]Here's another petition, started by students I think, if anyone wants to sign
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/582345[/quote]
Is it worth putting this in its own post in this topic so more people can see it and sign it?

Pepermintea · 12/04/2021 20:30

@Newgirls - I did wonder that too, but I don't know how to do it! Could someone more capable than me do that please!?

DoNotBringLulu · 12/04/2021 21:18

I have been lurking on this thread, thanks all for information. I have signed the petition and shared on my Facebook.

My ds wanted to either withdraw from uni or change to a uni closer to home; his experience like so many has been lonely, but luckily he's sticking it out where he is.

I hope the students' union can at least have some outside socially distanced events and the bar is open when he returns next week.

Has anybody's dc kept up with online meet ups for clubs/societies? Doesn't appeal to him.

Hoghgyni · 12/04/2021 21:27

I've started another thread for the petition. Can we try to keep it active.

Ironoaks · 12/04/2021 21:38

Has anybody's dc kept up with online meet ups for clubs/societies?

One of the societies DS joined has been really good. Weekly virtual pub nights as well as regular online sessions for the actual activity the society is for. They kept going through the Christmas and Easter holidays too. The closest friendships he has managed to form since starting university last autumn are with the core group of regulars. I don't think any of them are from the same year group / course / block as him, so he wouldn't have 'met' them otherwise (and still hasn't face to face).

Newgirls · 13/04/2021 08:51

@Hoghgyni

I've started another thread for the petition. Can we try to keep it active.
Thanks H
Abraxan · 13/04/2021 20:27

Well, the news is out.
No full return until May 17.
Same week DD's academic year finishes.
Her friends all appear to finish in May too, across a range of different universities and courses.

Great timing Hmm

choirmumoftwo · 13/04/2021 22:01

DD is going back this weekend regardless. She's followed the rules and been at home since early December. Motivation is at an all time low. She's had COVID, had her first vaccine and needs to make a GP appointment about a long-standing health condition in her university town.
There is absolutely no reason they can't go back, especially when non-essential retail is open. Her education, academic and social, is every bit as important.

Cookerhood · 13/04/2021 22:38

Yes DS is going back too. Apart from anything he can't get his vaccine here as he's not at uni in England so doesn't exist on the system as they forced him to register with a GP there.

Biscuitburglar · 13/04/2021 22:50

DD is trying to go back, just waiting for uni to confirm if they will let her back in to her accommodation. What a shambles.

JulesJules · 14/04/2021 07:30

D1 can't go back, she would not be able to get into her college accommodation. I've managed to change our overnight hotel date to the weekend before May 17th, so we can still take her. The whole situation for university students is just ridiculous.

KingscoteStaff · 14/04/2021 08:16

DS went back on Monday - he says numbers of 1st years in his college have increased each day - despite catering not starting until the 25th.

Pepermintea · 14/04/2021 09:41

@JulesJules DS is in the same situation.

I am so fed up of explaining to people that he literally cannot go back to his university accommodation. He had to hand in his room key and it will not be returned to him at this point.

mumsneedwine · 14/04/2021 09:46

Radio 5 are talking about it now (9.50am)

JulesJules · 14/04/2021 12:16

I was contacted via twitter by a journalist who is doing a piece on this for tomorrow's paper, I didn't want my name quoted for D1's sake, but if anyone else would like to talk to her, it's Alice Hall on twitter

Newgirls · 14/04/2021 13:01

I can’t find her - do you know her paper?

Cowbells · 14/04/2021 13:14

@Abraxan

Well, the news is out. No full return until May 17. Same week DD's academic year finishes. Her friends all appear to finish in May too, across a range of different universities and courses.

Great timing Hmm

Yes I noticed this. They're allowed back once it's all bloody over! Ds2 went back this week and called to say teaching has finished. It's just revision now until exams in mid-may. But the library is closed. There are no F2F study groups. So it's back to sitting alone in his room again, day in day out. No socialising allowed. No people from other accommodation blocks allowed into their building. No clubs open. College bar not open. Then he comes home for exams.

So, basically, in the whole of his first year, he had about four weeks in which to meet people, during which time he was alone in a flat because no one else turned u[, had no F2F lessons, met no tutors, had no freshers' fair, no societies - most of them had died out because last year, the second years who would have kept them going came home during lockdown and stayed home, so all the societies that had been going for decades just petered out.

I'm so angry on his behalf - not at anyone - just at the situation that has left this generation so bereft of those rites of passage from schooldays into adulthood. There was no school send off - no leavers' ball, no results' day meet up in school, no final day - nothing. A nothing last year at school. A nothing first year at uni. I wish I'd been able to persuade him to take a year out but he felt it would be a waste of time. A couple of his friends took years out. They both found jobs. They've been a bit bored but I think their uni start in October will be a lot more welcoming. I hope so, for their sakes.

user1497207191 · 14/04/2021 13:47

@Cowbells I fully agree. DS has suffered the same. He had a couple of F2F tutorials given by PHD students - that was it! None of his lecturers are even on campus and havn't been since last Easter! As you say, clubs & societies are mostly dead - they had a "virtual" clubs & societies fair during Fresher's week and DS signed up to a few but not heard anything from them. He's in a "college" Uni and has to pay the college fees but the college facilities are closed (i.e. common room, games room, widescreen tv etc), so that's another waste of money for nothing.

Xenia · 14/04/2021 13:57

We chose as a planet the old over the young. It was the wrong decision as I have been saying since May 2020. Better my risk of death were 100x as high than we did this. What is life without freedom? The 13 of us permitted guests allowed at my daughter's forthcoming wedding in a massive church, distanced, are still not allowed to sing 2 hymns this week nor wear masks and everything must be said very quietly - presumably even the marriage vows. What a world of petty restrictions and big state.

For those denied their first year this is much worse than those like my twins who lost their last term and graduation although even those of their friends starting first graduate jobs from parents' living rooms are not having a first job experience and ability to learn that most people need. Hopefully years 2 and 3 will be much better with more freedom to make up for it all.

This is not a UK issue but an international one. it is not a Labour v Tory issue (not least because wimpish Labour supported all the restrictions on our rights and freedoms from day one sadly rather than being a beacon for liberty)

Cookerhood · 14/04/2021 14:11

DS2 said they will having nothing either. He is on a course with a practical element, but they have just wateched people do the practicals on Zoom. Yesterday he said "goodness knows what will happen if I get a job where I need to operate one of these machines". What an awful year for them.
DS1 is still due to have a graduation "at some point" but I can't see anything happening. 2 or 3 out of his course of about 70 have jobs relevant to their course.

JulesJules · 14/04/2021 14:19

@Newgirls It's the Telegraph twitter.com/alice_hall8

Newgirls · 14/04/2021 15:25

[quote JulesJules]@Newgirls It's the Telegraph twitter.com/alice_hall8[/quote]
Thanks

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