Why students have been sold down the river - Catherine Scott

Thousands of university students are spending thousands of pounds to be prisoners in their flats to study online.

I still cannot comprehend why on earth they were even allowed back to college at a time of the year when virtually everyone predicted a second wave of coronavirus. It was completely avoidable. Why not let them stay at home and do the first term on line and let them start in the spring when pressure on the NHS should have abated and hopefully a vaccine found?

The only answer can be money – money for the universities and the private landlords. But is extremely shortsighted as many students will now think twice about getting into debt just to be locked up this time next year if no vaccine is found.

Instead teenagers from different parts of the country are all congregating together, many in halls of residences, unable to socialise beyond their bubble – and if they do so they are vilified for wanting what was promised to them. And surprise surprise there are outbreaks of Covid-19.

While the legality of locking up 1,700 students in their halls of residences at Manchester Metropolitan University, many still face being 
shut in their student rooms.

For many of them it will be the first time they have left home for any long period of time and what should be an exciting period of discovery is quickly turning into a nightmare.

It is not just about the academic and social side of things, it is the damage this could be doing to their mental health.

The threat of not even being able to go home for Christmas and see their families is downright cruel. How in a democracy can a government even contemplate banning thousands of young people going home from universities or colleges they have been encouraged by the same government to attend.

But it is not just higher education establishments, schools are facing some of their biggest challenges.

As more pupils are sent home to self-isolate teachers are having to teach face to face and home schooling. I have just had my 15-year- old sent home for another week in her GCSE year, having already missed months due to lockdown. While some schools are Zooming or using other platforms to give children at home access to live lessons, I have to say my daughter had none of those. Schools need help and they need it fast if they are to get children back up to a level where they can even consider sitting exams this spring/summer.