Going to university in 2020

Alegrias

There are lots of young people stuck in tiny accommodation, in high rise flats, without gardens, some of them with children of their own. Many of them will not have a University welfare system to support them, they have to get on with it.
There are clearly students out there who are having a bad time, and to any relatives of those people on here, please don't think that I'm saying that there are no problems at all.

But while not minimising the situation many students are finding themselves in, they are not unique and I'm finding this constant stream of breast beating on their behalf a bit much.

Life's not great for any of us just now. Saying that their education is ruined is a bit premature. Its a few weeks in their entire lives!

I most certainly do not think students are in a unique situation. I hadn't noticed people speaking out much for those in cramped living conditions or high rise flats either.

I hadn't noticed people speaking out much for those in cramped living conditions or high rise flats either.

That's kind of my point, growstuff

biba70 I'm not wishing to downplay the awful time your student friend is having but, it is very unlikely that a foreign student would have been accepted by a UK university with poor English language skills. All non-native English language speakers are required to have passed either an academic level IELTS or TOEFL exam before being accepted. The standards are high (I am an IELTS examiner) and few UK universities will accept even the lowest pass mark.
I do hope the university International Office will offer support to your friend. I imagine the whole experience must be quite distressing for him.

I agree with Toadinthehole, you can go to university at any age. Much better to go when you're older, know what degree you need and can see the point in working for it.

growstuff

Even if they're not breaking any rules, it's difficult for students living in halls not to infect each other. They usually live in flats of 6-10 with a shared kitchen and bathrooms.

With 6-10 strangers turning up from different regions of the country, it's inevitable that if just one is infected, it will spread to the others. Students weren't told before they arrived that they would be confined to their flats. Those paying for full board will be expected to eat in a large dining hall. Most were also told that they would have at least some face-to-face tuition which would involve leaving the building and travelling.

The living conditions aren't that different from that of fruit pickers.

They should all have been tested on arrival and testing should have been available on a regular basis for anybody suspecting they might be infected. They can't be kept in self-isolation for the duration of the course.

“The living conditions aren’t that different from fruit pickers.“
That’s a bit snobbish. Students are not more special than fruit pickers or anyone else. It’s a pandemic, everyone is suffering in some way, how each one deals with it will determine each one’s future. Come on students, make the best of a bad situation, step up and prove your mettle. Let’s all stop creating victims.

Apologies for using the whole quote, only meant to quote the fruit pickers bit and hadn’t intended to use name

growstuff

icanhandthemback Most students are 18 or over and legally are not the parents' responsibility and the universities will not communicate with parents.

If the child refuses to answer phone calls, texts, emails, etc and is 200 miles away, the parent is limited in what he/she can do. Contacting the university does no good either because they won't investigate, claiming that the student is an adult. Even travelling to the site does no good, if the university will not allow access to the building.

I'm afraid your post, thinking you know everything, has made me angry. You really don't seem to have much understanding of the experience of all too many students.

If the adult child is refusing to communicate with their parents, then that is their right and doesn't automatically mean they are struggling although I do understand it must be very worrying for the parent. Once again, I can only speak from experience and say that a friend was very concerned about her child last year when they were injured in a particularly dangerous initiation ceremony and the university were very helpful. Just as well as he had concussion and was taken to hospital. Whilst Unis won't take every parent's concerns seriously, after the suicides that have occurred in previous years, I understood that Universities were acting more cautiously about ignoring concerns.
Of course I don't know everything; however it would take me far too long to write down what I don't know and the first year of Uni would be long gone. The point I was trying to make, particularly as there was a particularly pointed comment about my son being able to cope, was that I wasn't just making my observations about his experience. I was making them based on what I had seen by a vast number of his friends who come from all walks of life and are at different Universities. I also have friends who lecture in Uni's. I certainly wasn't aiming at making anybody angry and of course there are some students who are finding this very hard...as there would be in a normal year. Those students do need more support and should be given in but not all students should thought of not being able to cope. Some of things people are shouting about, like contact time, is little different from what it usually is; we just don't hear about it on the news. I would stand beside anybody who was decrying that, I think it is a disgrace. The thought that every student is sitting in their room without any body else around is also wrong...the majority will have flatmates. Of course those in more traditional style accommodation should be allowed a bubble if they have isolated for the required time.
I don't see the point of worrying every gran who has a student grandchild that things are 'terrible'. They aren't ideal, for some they are terrible but for many, they have the resilience to get on with it and will still find a way of making it work. If you keep telling people they are weak, you will weaken them.

Just found out that the overseas students at our local Uni came back two weeks before the term started and had to self-isolate for two weeks.

Apparently they just got in with it. No signs in the windows saying ‘let us out’ or ‘help’ or ‘refund our fees’ and so on (all of which have been seen on the local news).

Students are a cross section of the population so some will cope and get on with it perfectly well and others will go to bits. The pictures reminded me of the care homes! perhaps the residents there should put up a few notices. I expect quite a few are having a lot of fun but my main worry wouldn't be covid but some other illness breaking out with them all locked in together.

Something worse than Covid? Such as?

"If the adult child is refusing to communicate with their parents, then that is their right and doesn't automatically mean they are struggling although I do understand it must be very worrying for the parent. Once again, I can only speak from experience and say that a friend was very concerned about her child last year when they were injured in a particularly dangerous initiation ceremony and the university were very helpful."

I can speak from experience too and say that the university was incredibly unhelpful. Even when I spoke to them afterwards, they wouldn't admit they could have done more. They were just interested in covering their back. Sorry, I get quite tearful even thinking about what happened.

In the end, I had to get the police involved.

I'm just wondering how many posting on GN about how it is OK for Uni students to have all their tuition on line were insisting it was vital that children went back to school for their mental health? There isn't some sort of a transformation when someone reaches 18 you know. The 16 year old with anxiety who finds isolation difficult may well have the same problem at 18, and would normally depend upon the support of family and friends, people they will now be seperated from.

Possibly a difference in that the children who suffered online lessons during lockdown may have had family but were cut off from friends.

The students are certainly cut off from family, but from what I see on the local news they do have others the same age around them in their student halls of residence, at least the freshers. Not family and not old friends though I agree.

I think there are two separate issues here. The accommodation and tuition. The former is, IMO, a bad deal, and whereas there is a certain amount of responsibility on the part of students (and parents) for taking this up in the circumstances, I know that universities have encouraged them to go, and they could have foreseen problems. A refund or discount on rent while they are not in classes seems fair to me as a gesture of goodwill, so long as staff are not put at risk because of pressure to teach face to face in order to save money.

The tuition is a different matter. I don’t approve of fees, but given that they are here, I can’t see why people are pushing for refunds this year - unlike last year when several lectures were cancelled. There will be teaching, and assuming that staff have been given preparation time there is no reason to assume that it will be substandard. The fees are for teaching, marking and access to people with expertise, and that will still be available - as will the library.

Whether or not students are able to party is not the university’s responsibility- they will be subject to the same restrictions as all residents of their areas, and no more or less inconvenienced than others.

DGS, now in sixth form, has announced that he has no intention of proceeding to University, but of seeking an apprenticeship. I applaud his sense of purpose and his maturity (he's just 16), but I wonder if the economic situation in two years' time will be such that even a bright young man will be able to find a suitable apprenticeship.

A reduction in fees would for the vast majority of students have no effect at all because most of them don't pay off their loans anyway. A reduction wouldn't reduce the amount graduates pay back. It would just reduce the money which universities receive from the government.

Students need immediate access to testing and nutritious food - not burger, pizza and pasta vans, which is what Man Met has provided. Those studying entirely online need to have access to decent digital equipment. It's surprising how many teenagers only access the internet via a phone, which isn't adequate for serious work.

Gavin Williamson just said in the HoC: "Extra maintenance support can be made available for hardship from Student Loans Co". There's just one problem - no such scheme exists - he just made it up! Most of us would call that lying. Either he is a liar or he genuinely knows little about student loans, despite being the Education Secretary.

annodomini

DGS, now in sixth form, has announced that he has no intention of proceeding to University, but of seeking an apprenticeship. I applaud his sense of purpose and his maturity (he's just 16), but I wonder if the economic situation in two years' time will be such that even a bright young man will be able to find a suitable apprenticeship.

I hope he can find a quality apprenticeship. I've known bright youngsters in the same situation who have found that there are very few Level 4 apprenticeships. If he wants to go into accountancy or banking, the big accountancy firms and the Bank of England have apprenticeships. Some of the big retailers used to, but I'm not sure they still do. They're all very competitive.

Oh! I think they are suffering more than somebody who lives in their own home probably with a garden and who can still go out to buy essentials or has a support network to do it.

Many people don't have gardens, may have young children and no support network.

Surely there is some method of getting basic food to these students, as there was for those who were shielding, or are they all starving?

The living conditions aren’t that different from fruit pickers.“

And?
What is that supposed to mean?

trisher

I'm just wondering how many posting on GN about how it is OK for Uni students to have all their tuition on line were insisting it was vital that children went back to school for their mental health? There isn't some sort of a transformation when someone reaches 18 you know. The 16 year old with anxiety who finds isolation difficult may well have the same problem at 18, and would normally depend upon the support of family and friends, people they will now be seperated from.

I agree with trisher and was going to post something similar. It makes me a tad cynical about how concerned people really are about pupils' mental health. 16 year olds with anxiety do have the same problems at 18 and need support in their first year away from home.

For those who claim that young men in the past went to war and just got on with it ... my father signed up for the RAF on his 18th birthday during WW2 and he told me once that there were some new recruits who wet themselves and cried in their beds at night. Thankfully, most civilised people no longer insist that 18 year olds turn into brave adults overnight.

paddyanne

I think the Scottish Uni's are having basic food delivered to the accomodation ,saw one girl on TV this afternoon with half a dozen bags of shopping ,her complaint was she didn't get to choose what was in them !!

I just saw your post paddyanne.
So, rather like the packs that were sent out to people who were shielding then,

I was worried no-one was feeding them.

Callistemon

^Oh! I think they are suffering more than somebody who lives in their own home probably with a garden and who can still go out to buy essentials or has a support network to do it.^

Many people don't have gardens, may have young children and no support network.

Surely there is some method of getting basic food to these students, as there was for those who were shielding, or are they all starving?

Is this a race to the bottom?

The point about fruit pickers is that living conditions mean that it's inevitable that infection will be spread, whether or not there are parties.

I get the point that you have no understanding of the situation students find themselves in. I hope you weren't one of the people who thinks schools should be open for pupils' mental health.

Callistemon

paddyanne

I think the Scottish Uni's are having basic food delivered to the accomodation ,saw one girl on TV this afternoon with half a dozen bags of shopping ,her complaint was she didn't get to choose what was in them !!

I just saw your post paddyanne.
So, rather like the packs that were sent out to people who were shielding then,

I was worried no-one was feeding them.

No, not all universities are sending out food packs. Get your facts straight!

The 16 year old with anxiety who finds isolation difficult may well have the same problem at 18, and would normally depend upon the support of family and friends, people they will now be seperated from.

But triher A young person suffering with such anxiety is really not ready to go off to university, away from family, even in normal times.
Deferring for a year or even putting it on hold for longer is a far better option for some who are still very immature.