What it is really like to be a first year undergraduate at one of the top University’s in the UK during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
By: Alice Grover
Tags: University, Education, UK Politics, Covid 19, Help

What it is really like to be a first year undergraduate at one of the top University’s in the UK during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Alice Grover Dec 19, 2020·3 min read

Hi. I am a 18 year old student who started her first year at University on September 28th. I have paid over £7,500 for accommodation loans, £9.500 for my tuition fees as well as receiving a £3000 student loan.

It is December 19th and I can officially say I have only attended 2 weeks of in person lectures do to the Covid-19 response of which only a few of my modules actually conducted in person lectures. Them majority of them are online.

Online teaching, I guess it’s okay. You get to choose when you do them but it is a pain when you don’t actually understand key points and you have limited opportunities to ask “what do you mean”, as they usually aren’t live. I guess its effective for reducing in person teaching, but the problem is it’s incredibly hard to interact with a video recording of a lecturer who’s mic isn’t the clearest or whose connection is poor. Imagine trying to grasp a completely new topic, on a zoom call or recorded lecture where the mics are dodgy. It’s lucky I’m not doing french!

I think my main worry is exams. I’m worried about deadlines and suddenly being emailed about a new upcoming exam and where I haven’t been constantly on my laptop all day — as I can get incredibly draining staring at a screen all day to watch lectures, take notes and interact with other friends — that I will miss an exam. Finding somewhere quiet to sit your exam on your laptop is also a struggle. It would be helpful if the libraries were open but the problem is that when the government tells us we are to go into lockdown but schools must carry on, it puts a lot of limitations on where abouts we can go with studying. Imagine trying to study in your typical Uni dormitory, it’s not the best.

I guess it’s not all bad. Universities have more freedom than our every chaps. We can go into each others dorms and spread the virus even more, staff have seemed to not care. We can throw parties and completely ignore the rules as nobody is actually enforcing them. I don’t think anybody has actually admitted that because students just think it is great. But, if you’re like me and more of a morality centred person, you would isolate yourself in your room afraid you would catch the virus but your roomates end up catching it anyways and have to isolate for two weeks.

I think one of the key things that nobody talks about with University is how incredibly lonely it is during Covid-19. I get why students break rules and go out to each others houses to make friends because they don’t actually know anyone until they do. However, if the rules are that students cannot mix, and like me you stick to them, you are left in a county with no friends to speak to, and theres only so much stimulation you can get from a computer screen with your old friends at home.

The problem is that I am faced with a challenge. Do I carry on sticking to the rules and watching my mental health decay whilst I isolate in my room, only leaving for food and the minimal in person lectures; or do I break the rules, finally make friends and hopefully see a potential surge in my mental health, all at the expense of extracting Covid-19.

I guess there are faults to each answer. But yes, it is incredibly lonely at University this year. It is something I have always wanted to do and was so excited to come. It seems as though Universities believe they are invincible from the virus as there are no warden’s preventing the spread of infections. It makes me feel unsafe and uncomfortable. After however many complaints, still nothing was done. I really don’t know what to do anymore. The only person who I can keep safe is me from my actions. But do I choose my physical or mental health?