Freshers flu and STDs spread like wildfire every year with new students arriving on campus, so it was only inevitable that coronavirus would do the same!
I can’t imagine what it’s like to be a new or returning student who has had their social/educational experience of university compromised by COVID-19.
For those who have followed guidance and reassurances from the government and institutions, now residing/locked down in uni accommodation and paying off fees for what is essentially going to be online tuition, this must be a really challenging time of uncertainty.
The government has an obligation to support the students that are now doomed in indefinite self-isolation. Coronavirus is one pandemic but mental health is another.
This mental health crisis, pandemic-induced, is only exacerbated by muddy guidance from the government, separation from loved ones and lack of clear communications between faculties and their students (regarding their official stance on managing localised breakouts).