Millions of us

Expected time in the industry is spring to summer 2021, if any of us are still in business.

The only thing the Government have offered me is a loan. I'll be due to start repaying it about the time I start work. All the people who do my job, don't pay tax & have a day job will be fine. We are ******.

I wasn't talking about the funding of universities, I was talking about a whole year of students is totally ruined. If they defer, what happens the following year?

 

I doubt many 18 year olds will defer for a year because of this. They’d be taking on debt anyway and financially they won’t be that affected by Covid as they’d have just been at school not earning anything anyway. People often take a year out to travel but that won’t be possible so what would they be taking a year out to do? Sit around and struggle to get a job? Also, all the year 13s I know are worried about their A-Level results and if they will still be offered a place, once the offers come through they’ll grab them with both hands, they’re not going to want to risk waiting a year and then competing with the new year who’ll have proper results - the special dispensations for this year’s intake may not stretch beyond this year.

I can see how it may affect international students (which is where unis make a lot of their money.

 

Scoff Jr is just coming to the end of her second year - and it has been a big adjustment to online teaching, coursework and exams. She is stuck with a contract for a rented house for the next year or so, so could have saved a fortune being at home - but would be stuck here with just her parents for company instead of her friends. As it stands, the new students will miss out on a lot of the "student experience" - parties, nights out, making friends and the inevitable drunken one-night stands and the rest of it that makes the first year fun.

What will be more difficult for her year (and any students contemplating research) is the face-to-face interaction with tutors and access to resources/people for that research (she is doing psychology/neuropsychology which is where the people bit comes in).

More practical courses like teaching, nursing and medicine will also be sending students into higher-risk of infection situations then coming back into universities.

The big question is, if students are staying at home but studying remotely (for at least one year), is that going to lead to Universities geared towards online studying (Open University or equivalent) increasingly more popular and are the other universities going to move more towards that model - they could *still* have the foreign students as long as they pay their fees and submit the work to a required standard to pass.

Will we see more British kids studying at Harvard, MIT or the University of Shanghai without leaving their parents home instead of university in the UK? And will the fees of British universities have to drop to the same level as their international rivals? Is a degree in science, languages or arts any more or less value if you take it at a physical or online university? Will you be able to pick and choose your modules from different universities to make up your own degree?

 

That will without a doubt happen. One of the carers of my auntie is from Vietnam and studies at university and her parents have basically told her she's to go home because they are worried about how unsafe it is here with Covid compared to their homeland. Huddersfield uni is packed with Chinese students, but come September I don't think as many will be allowed over here by their parents.

 

You talk sense here JamDrop. I work in the HE sector, although not directly for a university and that’s how I see it. There will definitely be a struggle this year for unis with few high-paying foreign students but there’s no reason for British students not to go this year. In fact, a recession is probably the best time to go to university because there’ll be no decent jobs about for them so they might as well get educated and enter the labour market in 3 years time when things have had chance to bounce back.

 

This is exactly what I've been trying to argue for, the trouble is that people just bring emotion into the argument. Presumably there's an individual on here who also thinks Professor Spiegelhalter has "unforgivable" views as well.

 

Some second year nursing students have been forced to defer.

 

Yes, I don’t see how teaching can really go ahead properly either. That’s more that unis aren’t accepting though than the students wanting to not go for a year. As Wellsie says, now is the best time to be in education rather than struggling to get a job for a year before starting.

 

There's a real problem looming for students on Vocational Courses or courses with a practical component.
The have to complete so many hours in a practical setting and can't qualify unless this is done.
(My daughter qualifies as a physiotherapist this year - fortunately done the requisite number of hours in a practical setting - those due to complete their second year now can't complete because they've not done the necessary amount of hours.)
Echoing previous posts - the thing my daughter is most peeved about is not being with her friends as she finishes the course - celebrations etc

 

Not sure about this. My daughter’s best friend has taken a couple of years out of education to work at Asda and get some money together before she starts Uni. She’s due to start in September. She’s now in a position of giving up a job that pays reasonably well, to not get the University life she was looking forward to. She’ll be getting the learning minus the lifestyle.

My own daughter will go into her final year, with a rented house secured that she may not now need. She feels that she’s missing out on the best times of her life. If deferring was an option I think she’d look at it. She’s already talking in terms of doing a Masters degree, to extend her stay, because she feels she’s missed so much of her Uni life already.[/QUOTE]

Those are both different situations though to 18 year olds who are fresh out of school and are a bit of a loose end and would find getting a job right now really difficult.

 

SCARE MONGER ALERT

 

We’re in a similar situation to some of you, currently paying for unused university accommodation and already signed the contract and paid the deposit for next year. We’ve asked about a payment holiday due to furlough but got a very curt refusal.

 

If that’s their reasoning for going to uni, they shouldn’t be going anyway. I appreciate that it’s not always possible for 18 year olds to think rationally, but parents should be looking at that and saying it’s not worth the debt to party for 3 years.

 

Yes, but a huge amount of 18 year olds have the same reason for wanting to go to university - and it doesn't involve studying online. It involves a lifestyle. I also don't think getting a job is necessarily that difficult - the Asda employee says they ae still recruiting. If my daughter wasn't already signed up to a Uni, I'd be advising her to take a year out and work at Asda.[/QUOTE]

I really feel sorry for students right now. The three years of my undergrad degree were incredible and I would have hated to miss a single second

 

If the Professor has been undermining the lockdown from day one then, yes, there is.

 

What do you mean "undermining". I've adhered to the lockdown to the letter, whilst at the same time fundamentally disagreeing with how it's been done. I don't understand your beef? Am I not allowed to disagree now?