UK government grants six-day ‘student travel window’ for winter break exodus

The government has announced new winter break Covid-19 measures, including staggered travelling dates and mass testing, in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus as students return home for the holiday period.  

Photography by Marco Verch (Flickr)

Currently, students must not leave their term-time address, until the lockdown is lifted on December 2, except for specific purposes.

However, today’s new announcement will enable hundreds of thousands of students studying across England’s 106 universities to return home on staggered dates between December 3 and 9. 

The government has requested that “face to face provision for the winter term should finish at every provider by December 9 at the latest.” This will mean that students do not miss out on work when they return home for the winter break.

Subsequently, the government has also stressed that they “expect providers to stagger the end of face to face provision between 3-9 December” and added that this will “alleviate” the pressure on public transport.

The new guidelines will, however, exclude students who have contracted Covid-19 or who have been required to self-isolate by the NHS test and trace app.

The government has grappled with how to ensure that students can return home since cases skyrocketed across university campuses since the start of term, including at the University of Glasgow and Northumbria University. 

The deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harries, described the mass movement of students as a “really significant challenge within the Covid-19 response.”

But Harries also added that “the measures announced today will help minimise that risk and help students get home to their families as safely as possible for Christmas.”

Universities Minister Michelle Donelan, told BBC Breakfast that the government chose the week succeeding the national lockdown because “at the end of it [the lockdown] students will pose a much reduced risk to their loved ones and their community.”

Donelan then stated that many university towns, especially with higher rates of Covid-19, will be granted access to a new batch of rapid coronavirus testing kits. The roll-out of these new testing kits is expected to begin at the end of November.

The Financial Times has estimated that neighbourhoods with a large proportion of university residents saw coronavirus rates reach as high as 701 per 100,000 in mid-October. In areas with fewer student residents, the rate was just 141 per 100,000. 

But Donelan also confirmed that students in England, unlike those in Wales, will not need to have a negative test before returning home. 

Dr Jo Grady, the general secretary of the University and College Union, said that the government’s plan was “riddled with holes” and criticised the single week period for leaving “little room for error”.

Grady suggested that the government should have “told universities to move online now” as it would “provide much more time to stagger the movement of students and better protect the health of staff, students and their wider communities.”

Nevertheless, the president of the National Union of Students, Larissa Kennedy, welcomed the government’s announcement, “The government has finally listened to our calls to ensure students can travel home safely for Christmas.”

“We particularly welcome this mass-testing approach as it equips students with the knowledge to make informed decisions about travel ahead of the winter break,” added Kennedy.

This article is published as part of The Commons Man series, written by Pi Media columnist Jack Walters.