Uni thread : September 2024 onwards - parents uni chat

[sammyjoanne]

Hi everyone have started a new thread since the last one from End of Year 13: Results, Summer and plans for September and onwards has finally got to page 20, and the thread has now ended. To our DC, well done for getting through first year of uni, and hope you are enjoying the summer and hope year 2 is as good one. To all who took a gap year last year, hope your first year is just as fabulous.
Apologies in advance if someone has already created a thread; I couldn’t see one. So if there is one please share the link below

Is this not a HE thread?

Hi @sammyjoanne and thanks for the new thread. Tizer is right though, we belong in Higher Education, not Further. Can you ask Mumsnet to move it?
DS and I have just been discussing how surreal it seems that it is A level results day tomorrow. It hardly seems 5 mins since it was us! Yet strangely it's also a lifetime ago. We are going up to move some of his stuff into his new flat this weekend. Still a few weeks to the start of term but he is on one of the University sports teams and they have pre season training starting soon. I don't know where the summer holidays have gone!
Hopefully if all goes well DS will be able to stay in this flat for the rest of his time at University. It belongs to one of his friend's parents so as long as they don't fall out with each other it should be good! It looks really nice and has offroad parking which is unusual in the city centre, but is still within easy walking distance of the University so I think he has well and truly fallen on his feet. One think that is a bit sad though is that his best friend from his course isn't coming back this year. It just wasn't working for him and he's going somewhere else to do a completely different subject. Perfectly understandable of course but DS is a bit down about it. He has loads of other friends but this guy was his best mate.
How's everything with you?

Hi Many thanks I can ask, but the thread at the top says ''You'll find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further Education forum'' so im not sure where its meant to be placed @mumsnet please can you move to the right forum for universities thread if this is incorrect?

@MrsAvocet
Aah thats sad about his best friend. It happened with the eldest DD when she was at uni, but the other friends were a supportive and had her pub quiz friends. I'm sure his other friends will be a support and the sports team will keep him busy. Hope the move goes well 🙂 DD1 finished her first year phd and it feels like yesterday since she started in 2020.
DD2 she lived with her b/f for first year in a student studio in private halls, and the contract runs out in 2 weeks time, then a week later a new contract elsewhere for second year. Shes gone to Austria today to see her boyfriends family on his mums side, so we have done a pick up last week, and then a couple more pick ups when they get back. Will be storing their things next summer of 2026 for a year; as she has a sandwich year for year 3, so she wont be in Nottingham. Its been a great year and they are both looking forward to year 2 :)

many thanks mums net i can confirm this is in higher education now :)

Thanks @sammyjoanne for starting a new thread. Glad things are going well for your two.

Hope flat move goes well @MrsAvocet

DD is headed back to Oxford end of August, going early for rowing trials and has a ticket to a winter ball. She's just off camping with some friends to the peak district and has spent the summer working on river tours and rowing/coxing mens team. Has accommodation for next year about 5 mins walk from her college, she's happy about that as means in y3 will be in college. We've been to France to see MIL and visit friends who live in a chateau and off to Isles of Scilly for another week soon.

Hope @legosnowqueen @Louiscatorze and anyone else's DC starting this year it goes really well.

The previous thread was in Further Education so not incorrect…?

Yes but when these threads started our DC were in Further Education - doing A levels and choosing Universities. Now they're actually there we're discussing Higher Education aren't we?

Dd has a chronic health condition so will be staying on campus for year two which is pretty cost effective given the rental prices in Bath! She has a place on the Lilly health equity hackathon in London in September which should be interesting. Good luck to everyone for year two!

To be honest I don’t think it really matters.

Thanks for starting the new thread @sammyjoanne& for tagging me @MsPengiunsfinally I have some great news to share after a tough year. DS did very well in his A levels & is really happy to be heading to Manchester. His seizures are not completely under control by meds unfortunately but he is determined to go & DH & me are supportive of that, as we know how he has struggled being forced to stay at home this year. We will look into transferring his care to the Manchester hospitals when he has settled in as epilepsy provision locally isn’t great, with only one consultant & no epilepsy nurses at our local hospital.

Great to see what your DCs are all up to - best of luck for the new term (semester?) & year ahead.

Hey I'm just wondering about transferring care, do you get your same spot on waiting lists etc? Because I know many people who decide to keep secondary care at the hospitals nearer to them, because they will have to be re-refered and with waiting lists the way they are, that will just be so long, I know for me, I keep my secondary hospital as the one nearer home (it's still a little bit far from where I live and there's nearer hospitals but I choose it even though it's far because of good specialists). I know when I talked to the university Disability Service they put in my LSP that I might sometimes have to go back for appointments and I'd just send the appointment form and they'd excuse the attendance. It was mainly because I didn't want to start on a waiting list again and delay treatment but also because I felt I had good specialists at the hospital I was at. So my lectures just knew and I'd ask for any work or any material from seminars and just do that. Especially if you think the provision is better where is current hospital is, but it does depend, I moved GPs to try and manage what I could with them.

Big congratulations to your DS Lego Hope he's very happy at Manchester.

It is probably worth checking the waiting list situation - I think when I discussed what would happen if we moved to my waiting list place for operation now had they said I could stay on current wait list and travel to original hospital or I could transfer to new area and start list again. Hopefully they will realise he needs to be seen but would check though if its better care would probably go with moving it.

Great news @legosnowqueen Manchester is a great city to be a student in and it's also home to the Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences.
We chose to move DS's medical care to his University city. He spends more time there than here and in all honesty the care is better there than at our small local hospital and GP practice. So far all he's needed is his routine prescriptions and annual review but I feel happier knowing that he is "in the system" there in case there's ever an emergency. If he has problems in the holidays he has a bolshy mother on hand to help him navigate being a temporary resident, but he'd have to do that alone at University if something happened. I'm sure he'd cope but we felt it would be easier if he "belonged" already.

How often is his care needed then from secondary doctors? U would say it depends on thar, a few prescriptions and an annual review makes sense to switch, but I know when I asked they said I'd start at the bottom of the waiting list (as obviously other people who live in that city are on it and I can't just go to where I was). I wouldn't have minded.
switching but it didn't seem an easy process at all, was it for you? For me it would have delayed treatment and MDT, as well as referral from my secondary care to two other specialities and delayed surgery as if I switched the hospital, I'd wait to be seen for a 1st appointment by then need another scan and then my surgery wait would be delayed as well, as my condition necessitates surgery on a pretty regular basis and further management with other specialities. I would say @legosnowqueen if like Mrs Avocet you don't need to much done, other than a basic review barring emergencies and prescriptions which a GP can do then definitely move. As long as you move GP and agree to having a summary care record then the hospitals nearby if there's an emergency can access it quickly and would know, though I did get a medical emergency card just in case. But different areas can be very different in the NHS.

It obviously depends on individual circumstances @TheLivelyViper - there's no one right answer. My other son was awaiting surgery when he started University and we kept his healthcare at home until then for similar reasons to you. He'd been waiting absolutely ages and had no desire to go to the bottom of the list again. Nor did he actually want his operation there with nobody but his flatmates around to keep an eye on him.
My younger DS has an unusual condition that needed a lot of investigation and treatment when he was a child but has thankfully been stable for a long time. However if he does get ill it's potentially a real emergency and trying to explain everything to doctors who knew nothing at all about him and have no notes, with no family nearby whilst he was unwell isn't something he or I wanted to risk. In all likelihood it won't happen, he manages his condition very well, but I'd rather not test the system.
If the NHS had a properly joined up IT system it would bother me less, but it doesn't in my experience and as DS is at University in Scotland and we're in England the systems are even more separate. He's going to be there for at least 4 years, 5 if he does the Masters and spends the majority of the year there so that's his permanent base really. Also from where we live the "local" tertiary centre for his condition is over 100 miles away whereas in his University city it's walkable from his flat. And from a practical point of view he manages his own prescriptions whereas I'd be stuck with collecting and posting a pile of stuff every month otherwise. Expense and trouble which obviously I would go to if there was a real need but there isn't. He gets free prescriptions there and can pick them up from the pharmacy he passes on the way back from lectures. But I can quite understand that whilst you're embroiled in a complex diagnostic and treatment pathway you wouldn't want to go back to square one.

That's very true @MrsAvocet and quite useful actually, I'm able to get prescriptions near me as I changed GP but travel down for hospital appointments etc. Yes I do think the NHS needs more of a joint up records system even for my hospital because it's in a different trust to my home GP, I often had to show the other scans on my NHS app and would print them out, because it would take them a while to get them from the request. If there's one thing I hope Wes Streeting follows through on is the part of the 10 year plan where it says by 2028 all of the systems will be the same (not sure about devolution) but at least in England and it's meant to up to then get better as they reach the goal. It would make so much more easier for everyone and make sure things aren't missed.

Hi yes that was correct. The previous thread was in further education as it originated when they was a level students at the time and eventually evolved into first year of uni. so started this one in the same section, apologies. But I have since been corrected and mums net has put this into the correct section of higher education.

@legosnowqueen With the eldest DD at Manchester her doctors is local to university and she gets her propanalol for her migraines. She no longer has her doctors at ours now, but her previous uni doctors did forward her notes on. She had supra ventricular tachycardia when she was 15, so it’s noted at Manchester in case she has another episode. Hospital is only 2 mins walk away, it’s super close to the uni.

Just wondering what everyone's DC are doing about insurance for second year? It was included in DS's hall fees for last year so I didn't need to think about it. I've checked our house insurance and it does cover DC's belongings whilst in "student accommodation" but since he's living in a friend's flat and not university accommodation or even a property with an official landlord I have a suspicion they might say he's not covered. I'll try ringing my insurers again tomorrow to check - got fed up of the huge queue today - but just wondered what others have done?

We haven't taken insurance for DD but don't think she's got anything that valuable there and very low risk, phone is insured. She's off camping now in the Peak District.

To the best of my knowledge, most people just leave it. My friends and siblings who did move out into their own shared flats didn't have insurance. My family rent so cannot add my siblings (and couldn't in the past) and cannot add me to their home insurance as we don't have any at all. Most people's phones and laptops have insurance and other than that it's fine, get a flat with decent people and hopefully nothing major happens to appliances etc (but if it does, a kettle etc can all be bought again, along as the students are okay themselves).

I also plan to stay in uni accommodation longer even as friends get shared flats because it can he adapted for my disability and then cost reduced because I need an en-suite and other things due to my disability not just a nice preference, which my university is kins enough to recognise. So they adapt the rooms for me at no charge and the price of the room is normally less for me as well, plus more safety, insurance etc. But my friends whose parents have homes aren't on the insurance (complicated in a shared flat) and they're just fine without it hopefully.

@MrsAvocet dd is still on campus so covered, but when ds was at Warwick university we paid for insurance in years two and three. Seemed to be the norm at the time. Think Endsleigh is the company and think I used them when at uni in the 1980s

DD had a great first semester at Aberystwyth, admitted to slacking off in the second but still passed the modules.

Hopefully she'll pick things up again in the second year.

She and some friends rather lazily just decided to book one of the university houses on campus for next year. I'm a little disappointed she didn't find some beautiful house by the sea but on the plus side, no need to worry about being a guarantor or anything like that.

She managed to pick up some work over the summer -had a bit of luck when a two day cleaning job turned into two weeks and then got offered covering for the receptionist as the firm she was cleaning for liked her. So has earned enough to pay for a train trip round Europe that she's going on with some of her uni friends.

I'll admit to having to bite my tongue around her - she really has more abilities and strengths than she thinks she has and hence doesn't put in the hard work that would make the most of them. It's a bit frustrating!

Found you guys! Great to hear your updates and well done to your DS@legosnowqueen

We haven't done anything about insurance for DS but he is in a college owned house just around the corner from the main college entrance next year so that should be handy. He doesn't take a lot of stuff with him and most of it is not worth anything so it hadn't really occurred to me.

He found some of the courses in first year pretty tough but managed to get a 2.2 in his end of year exams (phew!) Hopefully next year he can start to choose the courses he is more interested in and drop some of the other stuff. He has computer projects next year as well and he has started looking at the example one which he is supposed to complete over the summer but he is mainly relaxing and playing a lot on the computer. He's not back to uni until beginning of October so he gets a very long summer!