Student and Christmas

Who will pay for the extra time housed and fed either in hall or in rented accommodation?

Christmas is three months away, much will change. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best is all we’ve got at the moment. Surely we can all survive one miserable Christmas in a lifetime.

The little shop I work in have mainly older people in. The majority have said theyve talked with their grandchildren who've agreed they would rather have one christmas apart than never have one with them again.

LuckyFour

Not Christmas, but this weekend's student issue.....
I was feeling really down yesterday after hearing that students have not been able to have their party week during their first week of term. Oh poor them I thought! The over 70s love a party as much as anyone and we have had no parties since last Christmas due to the pandemic. We have been stuck at home trying to live our lives without catching a potentially fatal illness. I'm really fed up of selfish people who insist on doing whatever they want regardless of the impact this could have on anyone they come in contact with. We are the ones who have to remain in lockdown while others please themselves.

But it's us who will suffer most LuckyFour not the students. Most of them could have the virus and get over it with no long term effects, whereas a lot of over 70s would snuff it. So logically they should be allowed to party and mix as they wish just then stay away from older people.

I'm another one who thinks students could be tested before they go home - but that will mean enough tests being a available. I also agree with M0nica, here in the North East we are back on strict lockdown, we can't meet with other families or friends either in our homes or outside but we can go into a pub - the instructions get more ludicrous.

No sympathy with them at all, its just one Christmas in a lifetime. I didn't see any gap year students rushing home for Christmas Dinner in the ten years I was traveling. They need to put it down as an experience.

I have some sympathy what you write LuckyFour.
Here's a radical plan - the students could use this isolation time to do some actual studying. I am presuming that they have some books or online resources they could use even it is only background reading.

I think most of the students are probably freshers (1st Years) who go to uni a week earlier than the rest, the idea being they can get to know the university campus, meet other young people at specially planned social events, and make friends. I don’t see virtual events as cutting the mustard. These youngsters may be away from home for the first time and feeling home sick - I know I was. They need to get out and about to overcome this, and being told they cannot go home for Christmas will make them feel worse. If I had a son or daughter in this position and they needed to come home I would fetch them.

In the US cases rose when universities restarted. It should have been taken not of in the U.K. and better plans put in place. Universities just want the money and in many cases haven’t made proper provision for the youngsters.

The university student really don't need to be on campus because there lessons are all virtual . So they could be at home studying . Although they still decided to live in communal living and have a party life style . So who's thought is it if they miss out on Christmas . They all know there is a virus out there but the majority of them are still ignoring the restrictions in force .

Not Christmas, but this weekend's student issue.....
I was feeling really down yesterday after hearing that students have not been able to have their party week during their first week of term. Oh poor them I thought! The over 70s love a party as much as anyone and we have had no parties since last Christmas due to the pandemic. We have been stuck at home trying to live our lives without catching a potentially fatal illness. I'm really fed up of selfish people who insist on doing whatever they want regardless of the impact this could have on anyone they come in contact with. We are the ones who have to remain in lockdown while others please themselves.

As you say Franbern it's tens of thousands of university students - but no, it's actually more like hundreds of thousands of university students as most universities have around 15,000 students and there are 150 such establishments in the country, with a majority of their student population being away from their normal home. So, you are being entirely unreasonable in my opinion to want to spread this virus by allowing this type of travel. Of course families will want to be together at Christmas, but spare a thought for the thousands of people in care homes who still haven't been able to see their families, and many of those people will die without doing so. When the pandemic occurred, university students remained at their universities and went into lockdown with their uni friends, so why would we want to jeopardise the entire country at a time when the virus is likely to be at its peak by suggesting we might have a huge exodus and then return three weeks later - I don't think the local university populations would be very happy about the influx of students all over again from all over the country.

Poor little snowflakes....they should be getting on with their work....not whining at how unfair it is that they have to stop the spread of the virus.....cough cough....you’re dead!

I thought that Matt Hancock said "that he couldn't rule it out",

Christmas.? None of us can rule anything out for the future, can we? imho.......

Caragran how can you say “poor Boris” he’s totally incompetent, he couldn’t let that rat Cummings resign/be sacked because he would no longer have had anyone to work his strings, the utter buffoon! Anyone with half a brain would have realised that telling people to go back to work, telling students to go to university, telling people to eat out to help out would give out the notion that the worst of Covid was all behind us!
I feel very sorry for students at the moment because they have been misled. However, the situation being as it is, if things are still as bad or worse at Christmas then it seems entirely sensible to try to stop thousands and thousands of people travelling all over the country to spread coronavirus germs everywhere they go! It would be a pretty miserable Christmas for students if they couldn’t go home, but life is full of disappointments and unsatisfactory experiences and it would just be a lesson in life that you can’t always get what you want if they were “confined to barracks“ for the festive period. They are not little children, they will deal with it if they have to.

As I understand it this is only being put forward as a possibility IF there are large numbers of infections in universities. Currently universities are taking steps to restrict any outbreaks - why not wait and see what happens before jumping onto the bandwagon?

My grandson is already wanting to quit Uni and come home as he is sitting in a small room having online lectures. Restrictions on everything, no cafe etc open on campus. They are paying a lot of money for something they could do from home. It is almost £200 a week to stay on campus. I think only the students who test positive should not be allowed to travel, at Christmas or any time. That would of course mean a government that could get its testing done.

Caragran

It was Nicola Sturgeon but poor Boris will get the blame. Can't do right or wrong.

Never let the facts get in the way of a good made up story.

Do people not read the whole thread before posting? Is that just me?

I completely agree with you MOnica
I think it’s an appalling situation whereby other serious, terminal illnesses are being left untreated whilst covid, which for the vast majority of people is a very mild illness, is the priority.

We have moved on a lot since the Spring in our knowledge of the virus and hospitals have learned enough to prevent a large number of deaths, so surely it’s time to realise that we have to live with the virus rather than concentrating on the futile attempt to eradicate it completely.

Then of course there is the fact that the deaths announced every day are, in many respects, meaningless.

People are counted in the covid deaths if they had a positive test within the past 28 days even if the real cause of death was something else.

I agree Monica. Test them and let them go home

Universities are not going to "boot out" any students. Financially they are going through tough times anyway with no foreign students this year. That's one of the reasons they are anxious to have students at Uni, should they provide only on-line education the fees could be challenged. It's not just the rent for Halls they would lose.

What else would you expect
. Only students matter

I feel so sorry for this year's 'A' level students who have gone on to university. First the utter shambles of grades and now being stuck in their halls of residence. It would have made more sense for the undergraduates to have studied remotely, perhaps until Easter. I can't help feeling that the uni's thought more of getting rents etc into their coffers than the well-being of their students.

I thought students were only in their bubble/room, if one or more actually had Covid. It’s no different to anyone else’s household, they would have to isolate. Correct me if I am wrong?

It was Nicola Sturgeon but poor Boris will get the blame. Can't do right or wrong.

This is this isn’t students faults Young people, barely adults, already having their “A” levels messed up, the decision to open Uni’s at this time was utterly irresponsible and the first term should have been online wherever possible and students asked to stay in their own homes