UKC

Just thinking about this, primarily coz my son doesn’t want to go back (mainly coz he choose badly and would want to change or pack it in anyway).  Daughter at uni at chomping at the bit to go back.

Will we have loads of sixth formers taking a year out, especially if backed up worried parents?  And would this possibly mean some courses don’t happen?  And whilst I know September is a long way off, but the student lifestyle and accommodation is the most sociable there is, making even the most lax social distancing difficult.

And what about finances?  The maintenance  loan has a based on what parents earned up to March 2019, and loads of parents may now be flat broke.

Apols for the negativity, but it’s stressing me a bit and welcome thoughts.

Your penultimate paragraph has me worried...

If your circumstances have changed you can send info to student loans and they will recalculate. Email to this effect was sent about 2 days ago..

"... If you have applied for support, and have been awarded a lower amount than the maximum, and believe your household income for the current tax year (2020/21) will drop by at least 15% compared to the household income you provided when you were initially assessed, Student Finance England may be able to help. Further guidance on eligibility and how to apply is available online."

The concept of the so-called gap year has rather been holed below the water-line for most I suspect. The SE-Asia/Australasia loop is well and truly stuffed, as will most of other of the regular life-experience trips.

Shame.

A very good question.  One very pertinent to the decisions I am weighing up on some potential dramatic changes.  I don’t have a bloody clue.   It’s a total opaque mess ridden with all sorts of forbidding and schemes and uncertainty and opportunity.  All I can say is that I and everyone I know with involved roles are flogging themselves to look after their students and to prepare for whatever September brings.

One of my roles is 1:1 meetings with students on a regular basis to discuss their general progress.  If your son isn’t happy and doesn’t have a goal-focused mentality that will keep him right with a degree he isn’t engaged with, you should both sit down for a chat about his future regardless of covid.  Most university learning is highly self motivated, and if you don’t have the motivation from either an inherent interest or a focus driven by outcome etc, it could well go on to be a detrimental waste of time.  There may well be changes he could make to his course/modules they could help.  In such a case I try and steer the kids towards things that engage them over and above what their parents or 6th form admissions tutor told them they should do (I don’t suggest you did this, I have no knowledge).  An engaged student is an achieving student.

Good info, thanks

Agree, very wise words.  When I was 18 I went to poly, motivated by climbing and The Lifestyle and wasted three years (not) studying.

And keep up your efforts, could be some very tough times for students, staff etc. 

Im just finishing up a degree and there hasn't been any problems really. Unless you count disjointed teams meetings.

Application for M.Sc. approved, paperwork done. Student finance will be next as soon as i get the exams boxed off.

With regards to the parents earnings...it works on the basis that the less the parents earn the more the kid gets for the loan (paid to them, as far as i am aware everyone gets the loan for the teaching). I study with some well off kids, and they get less than me as their parents have to contribute.

Personally i cant wait to get to back, i was on the fence re: what to do anyway. The current situation, what with the impending financial doom gave me the impetus to sign up for the M.Sc.

Thanks.  It’s our finalists I feel worst for.  So many go in to jobs through graduate schemes which have a yearly cadence tied to the university system, and a lot are seeing offers rescinded.  Almost a lost yeargroup in the making.  I’ve seen no discussion or consideration of this.

Good point, I reckon there will be a lot of issues that have not been flagged yet. My son has decided not to go back  (he has a plan), which got me thinking about whether or not he had signed a tenancy agreement for next years house (already got stung be a very dodger landlord, loosing a whole heap of cash).  And then realised some of his mates are overseas students, who may now have concerns about coming back to the UK. So there is likely to be massive accommodation issues. And I started to think whether some first year courses would have enough students to run. Nightmare really, and I am trying hard to be positive. 

My daughter is in the will she go/won’t she go phase with starting uni this year. I think they just need to wait until the picture’s more clear. She doesn’t want to go if the first three months are sitting at home online learning. The benefits of going this year come what may as I see it are that the courses won’t be as full, there’ll be less competition for places, accommodation etc and they’ll emerge into the job market in a smaller cohort. It’s a really tricky time for them though. 

Yes, a few comments in an electronic yearbook, no real celebration and poor prospects of a job first off is pretty depressing. 

Yes, beyond jobs as already discussed, the graduation events are surprisingly important.  I’ve increasingly come to value meeting my student’s families at the post graduation reception - parents, siblings etc.  I skulked away from my degree but it’s a really standout moment for many.  I’ve been wondering what we can do about it this year.

Unrelated to universities this situation is causing me a lot of grief with a different role/job.  What I keep in mind is that it’s the same the world over for everyone.  There’s a lot of solace in that - I may have a  crap load of new problems but I have them on a level playing field.  I won’t be massively disadvantaged compared to others.  So if I keep doing my best I’ll do okay.

No-one really knows what will be happening to universities come September.  It could be anything from near-normal to stay-at-home remote learning (and various things in-between).

If I were a 6th former due to go this year, at this point I would be trying to keep my options open and decide when things are clearer. 

My sister gave a birth few days before my graduation and my mom wouldn't fly on her own as she doesn't speak English. I knew I'd be on my own, apart from classmates. 

I had a job offer secured with a flexible date. I calculated how much I can survive on between quitting a job at the restaurant and getting first payslip at the new place. I had two weeks of break between exams and the job and hitched to Cape Wrath and did some walking. I started the job before the results were published and I just worked through the graduation day. 

Those two weeks were magical, graduation not so much. No regrets at all and I am happy I didn't go, but I do realise my situation might have been different from many others. That, and the graduation was quite pricey which would have meant either sucking up another week mopping floor in the restaurant or not being able to have a mini holiday in Scotland.  

At this point I can't see it being anything other than this for the cohort coming in September, sorry.  Perhaps I am just feeling bleak after another day at the coal-face of higher education.  

As we all know, the university experience is infinitely more than just studying for a course. The government cannot expect students to return in Sept, pay full fees and get nothing for £9k/annum except some online courses. I’d recommend your son takes this coming year out and hopefully by 2021 we’ll have some semblance of normality. A year out is normally best spent volunteering or travelling abroad, but sadly that option has long gone! 
 

I fear if this continues much longer, we’ll decimate the futures of the young and in-debt the unborn to a life of economic slavery. It wouldn’t surprise me if we see an exodus of educated young people leave the UK  in the coming years, myself included. 

Lodge Jnr is planning on going as originally planned, I think it's a case of not knowing what he would do if he didn't go as much as anything.

I listened to a Facebook live steam with some UCAS people last week and they were suggesting they are getting lots of late enquiries from people who have scrapped gap years they had intended to do.

It's a depressing though paying full fees to study at home but I'm clinging to a hope they will start as normal because I can't see how anything would have changed if they delay them going until after Christmas.

I guess it’s hard to know until things become clearer. I’d be equally pessimistic but the whole situation could change rapidly. As Steve says, paying £9250 for a third of the term (at least) to be remote isn’t overly appealing. 

are you a mature/adult student? I always got the impression (overall from other posts of yours) that you were not a 19-21 year old student but,rather,an older “professional” . I don’t know why I formed this assumption 

Local Uni (Exeter) were on TV last night saying they were estimating revenue to drop somewhere between 10 and 20% in the first year and the impact to go on for 5 years. For them that is £50-£100m less income.

VC stated that numbers of UK students were holding up well but high fee paying foreign students were expected to stay away. 

Even though the virus is far far less prevalent down here, so far, the difference between Exeter,  or even Bristol,  and London is not understood by non UK student and parents. 

what I have heard is that uni's will be mostly online in september with phased return of courses, e.g. medics and nurses and the courses that require face to face teaching and placement returning/starting first in October, and the courses that can get by with online teaching but have big classes returning potentially after Christmas - but of course this is all speculation. So essentially, what unis are predicting is that there won't be a 'freshers' in the normal way - some courses will be distance learning over that period. I know that my uni isn't even resceduling graduations till 2021 and are preparing online teaching for the whole first semester currently!)

But all the 'fun' stuff about uni - the parties, halls, freshers events might be on pause. So I know a lot of my friends are considering deferring their course for a year till it's back to normal, as they're paying 9 grand and want to get the most of uni, not even waste one month having to do it online. 

For the students I know who are deferring, it's not because they're worried about the virus; they just don't want to lose one of the best experiences of their lives. They want to make the most of their youth and not have 2-months doing uni work whilst stuck at home when they could just get the full experience that they're paying for by returning next year and be happier.

I actually struggled with mental health the first 2 years of uni and ended up deferring for 4 years before returning - when you're not happy at uni, or you don't socialise, and don't actually experience uni life it is a miserable experience, all you have is loneliness and deadlines. 3rd year when I was well and happy was so much better as I could join societies, go to events, go on big weekend trips, explore the city without anxiety to balance out the stress of work. I think deferring is so so worth it if it means you get to spend a year at university making the most of the experience and being happy. If you have a bad year at uni when you're young, it is so lonely and depressing and isolating when you're away from home that it leaves such a prolonged negative effect on your mental and physical health. 

Back when I left school (mid 70s) many of us took a year between school & university (not sure the term gap year was in use at the time) but very few travelled beyond Europe and many spent the year doing voluntary work in the UK. Others worked to save some money for the next year or to pay for a month or two travelling, or in my case some 6 weeks climbing in the Alps.

Really nice post jellytrad, and could not agree more about how University can be a very sad place if you are struggling with mental health and isolation.  I have seen so many students who suspend studies and then return a year or so later from the security of a good home, perhaps a job with a routine, fit and ready to engage with their studies and go on to get a great degree. 

My worry is for those who defer thinking "I'll go when this is over" and we don't know when it will be over.  But for sure I think the online offerings will get better the further into the future we go - disclaimer of course all the online offerings will be perfect from the get go as the Universities minister has said that if courses are taught online and "students are really getting the quality, and they're getting a course which is fit for purpose", they would not get a discount on fees.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-52506283

Lots more difficult decisions for people.

Yes, im 31. Worked in construction since school.

Funding is still the same, they just look at over 25's directly rather than assess the parents. 

Having read the rest of the posts i feel as though my contribution reads a little smug, it wasn't intended that way. Before i started university four years ago i was really anxious and it was really difficult to understand what was going on, i imagine that this feeling will be amplified somewhat this years intake. Hopefully it will at work out, i know my uni (so far) are doing a pretty decent job of it. Its a 'lower tier' organisation so hopefully other establishments will at least be handling things in a similar fashion.

Seems very dangerous to have medical and nursing students going anywhere near hospitals during the Covid pandemic.

Being exposed to a potentially fatal disease isn't part of the curriculum and its hard to see how they can learn 'normal' patient care when everything is almost shut down to deal with Covid or where the PPE necessary to keep students safe will come from.

There's also the problem that the medicine and nursing students could bring Covid back onto the campus and into the community at large.   The academics in those departments are more likely to have serious illness than the younger students and will be face to face with students who've been in situations where catching Covid is likely.   The students will mix with other students in halls and unions.

It would seem safer to either reorganise courses which involve going into hospitals so the practical element is deferred or halt them for a year.

Some courses have already been postponed, but there is a downstream cost to this, as people are retiring and they're won't be replacements ready for them.

The re is Particularly a problem for year 2 students who couldn't be registered early, but couldn't go to placement. Some year 2 students have had placement activities replaced by theory, but they'll need to catch up with those skills at summer point. 

It's doing to be a real challenge over the next 2-3 wars as it has affected so many Programmes. 

Wars should read years in last paragraph 

In reply to roguefab:

Interesting intervention. AI bot, meet UKC. UKC, meet AI bot.