5 Uni Students Explain What The Past Year Has Been Like From Inside Halls

“As a first-year student living in the Owens Park halls within Fallowfield, infamously dubbed by fellow students as ‘HMP Fallowfield’, I’m appalled by the lack of maintenance in an accommodation that is already over-priced. We have a silverfish problem and many of my friends have had broken fridges and showers since day one that haven’t been fixed.”

“Each week something changes in the news which impacts our lives. The University of Manchester (UoM) has gained notoriety recently, from unnotified fencing around student accommodation overnight to the racially-aggravated assault of a UoM student by campus security guards. To say it has failed those in its duty of care would be a grievous understatement. So, alongside the student organisation S.A.F.E.R [Student Action For a Fair and Educated Response], I am campaigning for the University to create a non-disadvantage policy among our various other demands. We are calling for a mental health support plan specific to the current climate.”

“The promise of blended-learning made moving to Bristol seem like the obvious choice. But it is far from what I imagined, so I became a member of the @rentstrikebris group at University of Bristol. With over 1,400 UoB students rent striking, I hope this forces the University to recognise the financial pressures young people are facing.”

“For me, it’s about even more than the money – it’s also the severe impact the current climate is having on our wellbeing. After testing positive, neither myself or my 11 housemates were contacted by the University. The lack of mental health provisions is especially concerning for a University which saw 13 students die from suspected suicides within a year and a half. So, considering its poor mental health record, it needs to up its game.”

“In defiance of Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s suggestions for creatives to ‘retrain’* for new jobs, I started my first-year in Fine Art in Cardiff. I was initially lured by the facilities and resources this course had to offer, but the move to predominantly online has been especially difficult and hasn’t lived up to my expectations. Although I knew from the start it would mostly be online, the lack of practical creating is really getting me jaded.”

“Described as a BA course where students can gain hands-on experience in practical studio sessions and workshops, we are ironically now only allowed into the studios once every two weeks. I feel like this is worse than not being allowed in. It’s like a tease of making stuff.”

*On Oct. 6, ITV News Politics tweeted “@RishiSunak suggests musicians and others in the arts should retrain and find other jobs.” Sunak and his office disputed the claim as a comment about general employment, not specifically about the music or arts sectors. ITV has since apologised.

“We were told by the University of Edinburgh, ‘if you can be in Edinburgh, you should be’, like many other institutions who encouraged students to return under the guise of a hybrid model. But I was unconvinced and suspected that this was just a translation for content being delivered almost completely online – and I was right! Instead, I chose to do my fourth-year in Neuroscience from home.”

“Despite currently being COVID-19 positive, I still count myself as one of the lucky ones because my symptoms haven’t been overwhelmingly awful. But the combination of not having a clear disclosure procedure for students testing positive and the pressure of group projects has prevented me from gaining the support I need at this time, to the point where I don’t even feel like telling them will make a difference.”

“I’m a big advocate for the Student Union’s Against Sexual Violence (AVS) campaign. With domestic abuse-related calls to police every 30 seconds in the first seven weeks of the first lockdown, Goldsmiths’ retraction of its commitment to supporting the ASV project comes at an especially detrimental time. Since having to come to terms with my own experience of being a victim of sexual violence, it shocks me that a university would reduce an incredibly important student service during a pandemic.”

“By significantly reducing the funding available, this limits the SU’s capacity to offer crucial support to students who are in isolation and possibly living in dangerous situations.This retraction is both short-sighted and careless, and I feel more noise around it is vital in forcing Goldsmith to reverse their decision. As sexual violence doesn’t stop during a pandemic, neither should the funding to fight it.”