Going to university in 2020

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trisher, I quite agree. The parents may well have been assessed on a previous year's income but may have suffered financial problems with the lockdown. They will have to make some very difficult choices. We are lucky not to be in that situation as my son is fully funded but until we found out what the score was, we were worried about how we could cope financially. I really hope this does bring about change for students but that isn't going to help this year's students.

I know there will always be exceptions, and I know that it is different for students who have travelled from abroad, but all the parents I know who waved their offspring off to university made sure that they had enough supplies with them to withstand a short siege.

icanhandthemback I think this may not just cause disturbance for students but many parents, particularly those who are making massive contributions, will be up in arms. Anyone with an income of more than £25k per annum will be supporting their offspring, and with the lack of part time work available they may have to fork out more.

Ellianne, many Universities did say that Freshers' Week was not going to happen in its traditional form. Anybody with any understanding of what was going on in the world would have realised that things weren't going to be "normal". It wasn't rocket science. However, I do think the offer of online teaching with students choosing to stay at home should have been allowed. Whether they still had to pay for accommodation they had signed up for, is another argument altogether. My son got refunds for various things last year but instead of taking it off their loans which would have really saved them money, they paid it back to the students.
My son headed for Uni yesterday for his first "in person" contact. Basically, he sat in a room 2 meters apart from everybody, the lecturer streamed the lecture from another place and there was absolutely no mixing. Very safe but not really worth the bus fare as he could have done the same from his house he is renting. All group work is to be done over video link. So, "in person" contact isn't actually in person. I'm not complaining, I just think it is funny to "sell" it as "in person" rather than what it is.
Many of the issues regarding the cost of accommodation are things that need to be addressed, Covid or not. The house my son and his friends are renting is taking £35,000 for the 11 months he can rent it. Although Uni doesn't officially start until the end of September, he had to pay from the middle of August. He will have to pay for it until late July even though he will finish in June. He had to find and pay his deposit plus first month's rent by Christmas last year whilst he was still trying to get his head around being a first year student. Whilst it might be something he can look back on with a, "Phew, I managed it," it does seem a very unfair system especially if your parents have to manage another expense if you don't get the full loan. The threshold for parental support is actually quite low and I'm not sure how we would have been able to do that if we had just a little more money. I wonder if the current conditions might actually cause an uprising from students which will cause a change.

You are right I'm sure doodledog. It was certainly the case before the pandemic that leaving (or course-changing) was possible in the first few weeks.

Please tell your 1st year family members to get out now if it's not right for them. They have barely arrived!

Maybe some new students would actually have welcomed the university being stricter in its expectations of their conduct. A large number may have felt safer if universities had intervened sooner and laid down the law spelling out the consequences. Freshers' week is, of course, important to make new friends and join societies, but I think these days many students see it as an excuse to run amok drinking and partying. Universities allow it, but this year there is a heavy price to pay.
Would it have been that difficult to have said Freshers' week had been cancelled or at least scaled down this year? Other people are making sacrifices, students might have been glad to have the decision made for them.
I had an email yesterday from a young couple due to get married in 2 months saying their wedding is now postponed to December 2021. The bride is obviously very upset, but explained her overriding feeling was one of relief that the decision had been taken out of her hands. They will still get married on the day, just as students could still have turned up at uni for the learning experience. She will have a meal for 12 guests after the marriage, just as students could have attended small ticketed events with safe measures in place. She will have a big party next year, just as students could have put a lid on it until a future date next summer.
Maybe looking back in a month or twos time some of these students will wish the frivolities at the start of this term had been curtailed or more regimented. Or maybe as a group they will just move on to the next excuse for a celebration?

There will be a grace period during which students can change their minds without penalty, or that used to be the case. It is/was about 6 weeks after they start. I don’t know if it applies to accommodation - probably not - but it is worth asking about it if they are miserable.

There may also be the possibility of transferring to somewhere nearer home - again within the first few weeks. After this point, returns are sent to HEFCE (in England), and students are officially ‘on the books’. Quite a few transfer at the end of a year, but would need to show that the course they are leaving maps onto the one they are joining.

If they are miserable at university they can always drop out. It doesn't mean they can't start again in a year or two.
I think the first year, first term fees are about £2,300 so they would still probably owe that. There is definitely a way to be released from the university contract from an educational perspective. I know this because one of my "boys" dropped out and then went elsewhere later. He was miserable. He dropped out in the spring and was released from his accommodation too as it happens.

The last time I looked, one in sixteen students drop out in an "ordinary" year, so nothing new.

Please advise miserable/depressed students to do it sooner rather than later! Ask them to speak to student services after speaking to the union.

I realise that.

Therefore being away from a support network at age 18 may not be the best thing for them.
Some young adults just need longer before they are ready to become more independent.

Callistemon

^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.

Callistemon anxiety is nothing at all to do with maturity and even the most mature person can suffer from it. There isn't some sort of transformation as the person gets older.

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.

It's getting ridiculous now.

rmp.

Of course they won't leave them to starve to death.

Supermarket grocery slots are more easily available now, too.

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

Bit harsh there growstuff? I know that Manchester Uni students have been receiving food oarcels; certainly at the beginning of this week. Whilst their situation is far from ideal, I'm fairly sure that no university would be leaving 100s of students to go hungry, for the reasons that Doodledog gave, if nothing else.

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.

True. It is the students who seem to be asking for fee reductions, and asking what they are paying for, though. Oh well, I do think that a re-evaluation of what fees are for is long overdue.

I doubt that students will be left without food for any length of time. I honestly don't think that even the most money-conscious Vice Chancellor would want that, and even if they didn't care, the PR would be disastrous. There will be deliveries as soon as they can be arranged, I'm sure. It won't be a simple thing to organise though, so it will take time.

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

Oh dear.
No food!
How many weeks until the end of term?

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

And?
What is that supposed to mean?

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?

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.