Why do we keep failing our class of Covid-19?

Here are a few things students (and the rest of us) have been able to do in England since Monday; get a haircut, go to the gym, go to a beer garden, go to the zoo, go to a funfair, go to a betting shop and go to Thorpe Park. Here is something students can’t do; attend university. 

According to government guidelines, from 8 March, universities were able to resume “in-person teaching for students on practical courses and those who need access to facilities and equipment on campus.” But for the other one million students who don’t study practical courses, they are to continue learning remotely. 

The guidelines indicate a review of when students might be able to return to campus by the end of the Easter holidays, but so far, students and universities are still in the dark. Professor Julia Buckingham, vice-chancellor of Brunel University and president of Universities UK, told The Guardian that she had hoped universities would be allowed to open on 12 April. Once again, students were not so much as told no, as told nothing at all.

Yesterday, to the disappointment of students around the country, the government finally announced students on all university courses in England will return “no earlier than 17 May”.

There have been no winners in the pandemic, but students have had it especially bad. For £9,250 (there has been no conversation about fee recuperations), they have been sent home indefinitely, given no choice but to continue paying rent on university accommodation and endured months upon months of virtual learning. The up-side? Those in their final year will likely graduate into a job market so oversaturated it’ll be a long time before they have to start paying those debts off. It’s an entirely unenviable situation.

Students are, unsurprisingly, coming to the end of their tether; a petition has been created asking for the return of all students to university at the start of the summer term. The students are not campaigning for resumption of face-to-face teaching, just the legal permission to return to their university towns and accommodation and access facilities such as university libraries. At the time of writing, the petition has 5,264,000 signatures. 

This week, MPs in Sheffield wrote to the Secretary of State for Education, Gavin Williamson, demanding an urgent announcement on the status of university campus reopenings. Universities UK (UUK), Student Minds and the National Union of Students (NUS) have also written an open letter referencing the mental health struggles, financial hardships, isolation and loneliness young people have experienced. “Students have not been given the certainty that other groups have,” the letter says.

The two million students in Further Education (FE) in the UK have been given slightly more clarity, with the roadmap stating that “students can return to industry placements, where working from home is not reasonably possible,” as of 12 April. But with social distancing set to restrict college teaching of large groups, they are likely to face a drop in student enrolment in the coming year, as well as a significantly reduced international student take-up. This could have a lasting impact on British FE through a sheer lack of funding. The Association of Colleges also wrote an open letter to Gavin Williamson, estimating that an average college might lose between £500,000 and £1 million per month of temporary closure or reduced capacity and stating that colleges are in dire need of government support. 

Students have been made to feel like second-class citizens throughout the pandemic, and we are still failing them. Have we already forgotten the freshers forced into isolation with housemates they barely knew and the “9K 4 WHAT” signs they placed in their windows? Or the £400 bill international students having to quarantine at Oriel College at the University of Oxford faced just to have food provided? What about the metal barriers put up overnight outside the Fallowfields halls of residence at The University of Manchester, just before students were abruptly told they weren’t allowed to go home for Christmas?

In August 2020, a 17-year-old student, Matthew Mackell, committed suicide. He was anxious about the impact of lockdown on his A-level results and had recently lost his job due to Covid-19. His father later told the Daily Mail that Matthew had achieved an A in finance, his favourite subject, though his son would never know this. 

Mackell is just one harrowing example of the impact the pandemic has had on young people and students, but his anxieties are echoed across the country. The mental health charity MIND reports that 68 per cent of young people have said their mental health has worsened during lockdown, 18 to 24-year-olds (a common university age bracket) are the most likely to experience loneliness and nearly a third of young people are using alcohol or illegal drugs to cope.

Mackell’s death showed the devastating consequences of failing to support our students and young people. A year on from his death, the government has done little to reassure our country’s class of Covid-19. And the same young people who have socially distanced and self-isolated to protect others for the better part of a year, find themselves completely ignored, once again, in their time of need.