Uni students

T

Train Guy

Well-known member
All I hear on the news from these poor students is the lack of partying, lack of going on the lash. lack of freshers week. These students are not doing their cause any good at all when the rest of the country is suffering job losses. and other hardships.
 
You must not be listening then.

The problem is they've been pressured in to signing up for 12 month rental agreements only to find out their courses are all online now so they could have saved their money and stayed at home.

Then to make matters worse the obvious infections have started and half of them are being told they're not allowed to leave their flats. It's like what happened with care homes. If you lock 6 people in a small flat and 1 has coronavirus, then a week later they all do.
 
I think the first 3 months of uni life aren’t about studying, it’s all about partying and socializing, which is now one of the catches about moving from home to somewhere new, but yes the OP is right, they need to pull ship in these unprecedented times.

The government and education board also need to pull rank and agree to pay some of their rent that they are tied into.
 
Given the choice I would still say students would have opted to go rather than be stuck at home. Whether the situation will be worse in 10 weeks time at the end of term when they want to or indeed can return home to infect their older families for Christmas is going to be the issue.
 
It's about money, the universitys are businesses and they need their customers.
I cannot understand why any parent would send their child on what would be a horrible travesty of a 1st year.
A gap year would have been the sensible option, unfortunately without the world tour.
 
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Also demanding assurance that they can go home for Xmas🙄.

'oh yes you've got covid but it's fine to jump in a car and go and see family'
 
Fair points above, students are being used as a moneyspinner to support the lifestyle of academics, whilst schools bear the brunt of the challenges of educating.
But this is supposed to be the beginning of adulthood, like starting a job, not an extension of adolescence.

I'd swap with these young people. My 'student experience' was like The Young Ones, only with shared rooms.
 
Corcaigh_the_Cat said:
The reports are supposed to wind you up. Give the students a break.
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Know a few people who are generally anti-university students and speak of them disparagingly. Think on, ALL the technology we see around us and take for granted and ALL the advances in medicine come from people who went to university NOT the 'left school at 15/university of life/millionaire by 25' brigade.
 
chickenrunner said:
Think on, ALL the technology we see around us and take for granted and ALL the advances in medicine come from people who went to university NOT the 'left school at 15/university of life/millionaire by 25' brigade.
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Jobs, Dell, Ellison, Zuckerberg & Gates all went to University, however they didn't stick around for long. That said I agree with your point and the demonisation of students.
 
Anton_Berg said:
Fair points above, students are being used as a moneyspinner to support the lifestyle of academics, whilst schools bear the brunt of the challenges of educating.
But this is supposed to be the beginning of adulthood, like starting a job, not an extension of adolescence.

I'd swap with these young people. My 'student experience' was like The Young Ones, only with shared rooms.
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As an academic, I'd suggest that I'm doing many more hours of unpaid work in order to convert existing teaching material into online formats. As for money spinning, I'm being paid the same salary, which is less than I earned on the NHS frontline.

I will admit that one of the more disappointing aspects of university life since I've been here is that it is just another business; it does think in terms of profits and losses, but then again that side of the business is run by managers, rather than academics.

I also think that, for my students (many of whom were back on the wards at 7 this morning), university is not about the party lifestyle: it's about progressing into their chosen career. Most do not want to delay the year as it sets their lives back; university is not their final destination, it is part of a journey that they want to get on with.
 
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Firstly most people going off to Uni are only 18 so it's perfectly understandable that they'd be upset about not expriencing the life they thought they were going to have. That however has not been the main focus from anyone i've seen talking about the subject. The issue is people being advised to pay rent, then being told not to go, or alterrnatively being told to go only to end up being in isolation.
Also these are the people that are going to lose out massively with a lack of graduate jobs as the economy takes a massive hit. Like many groups of society they're worthy of some sympathy
 
You've got to bear in mind that for these students, probably the last couple of years have been built up to this moment of going to university, their 1st taste of freedom. And for the last 3 months they've been told to go out and eat and drink. And they arrive at their accommodation and are told that they are causing the spread of this and they are imprisoned with a bunch of strangers. And they're having to pay through the nose for the pleasure. I'd be very upset if it were me too.

You may not be at that stage of your life, but think back to how youd feel at that age based on the above and then maybe you could have some compassion towards them rather than demonising them.
 
They are in an awful position, paying an absolute fortune for online learning is a complete scam from the Unis, and paying top price for accommodation they now dont need but were encouraged to still attend. Inevitable this was going to happen with people living so closely together.

What do they do at the end of term/christmas, yes the majority will be wanting to go home but this will likely start outbreaks when they go back, plus passing onto older parents/grandparents will have huge impacts on them.
 
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