Class of 2020: 'The reality of being at university during Covid– and what this year's freshers should know'

It may have been a difficult last year for students, but many still had some lessons to impart to the next cohort...

‘No matter what’s in store next year, you will make plenty of friends’

Hermione Blandford, 20, Exeter University

‘Going in and out of lockdowns was all a bit overwhelming at first and it was difficult to make friends and do fun things. I’d taken a gap year and had seen so many of my friends go off to university the year before and have the most amazing time. Instead, I was doing Harry Potter marathons with my flatmates (I was in a self-contained flat of seven people, in a hall of residence) and I had to self-isolate on multiple occasions. But it wasn’t all bad. Not having the intensity of clubbing every night took the pressure off the freshers experience and we made an effort to keep our doors open and chat through Whatsapp during lockdowns. In fact that’s how I met a couple of my closest friends.’

My advice to new students: ‘There's no such thing as a perfect fresher's year. Even if your first year ends up going in a direction completely different to how you expect it to go, trust that it will all work out in the end.’

‘If you lose out on a room in a hall of residence, don’t worry.’

Eithne Marsh, 20, King’s College London

‘After five weeks, we were told the rest of the term would be online with no information on when we would return to normal so most of my friends decided to go home. When all the people living in my flat in my hall left too, I decided to go home myself. I was disappointed as I felt as if I had just started getting used to student life, but university allowed me to wriggle out of my accommodation contract and it saved me around £5000 in rent. Around Christmas, one of the other students on my course mentioned they were looking for a flatmate. I hadn’t met her in person, but responded to the email and moved in by February as I didn’t want to have spent my entire first year of university living at home. It was a leap of faith that worked well as I ended up liking the living situation more than the experience I initially had.’

My advice to new students: ‘Living in halls isn't the only way to make friends and have a great time - that's what societies and parties are for. There are also the people on your course.’

‘If you run into any problems, talk to your uni’

Hollie Carnew, 19, University of Gloucestershire

‘I still managed to have a lot of in-person lectures but I didn’t have a good experience with the people I was living with in halls. Nothing went seriously wrong, but we just didn’t click. I was looking for more of a social environment, which I didn’t feel as if I was getting, and it didn't help that my halls didn’t want flats to mix. In the end I asked the university’s residential support advisors if I could move across the street to a different hall and I was instantly much happier as I got on better with the new people I lived with.’

My advice to new students: ‘Universities are there when students run into problems, whether that's financially, socially or mentally. If you have an issue contact your student union.’

‘I made friends online’

Connor Duffield, University of Hull

‘I managed to meet friends on UNII, a social networking app for UK-based university students designed to help them find friends where they’re studying. When you create an account, you give information on the interests you have and where and what you’re studying. The app pairs you with people with similar interests and you get three friend suggestions every day. I met two friends from the app and still talk to them today.’

My advice to new students: ‘Covid has made life a little harder to navigate, but universities have prepared for it now and have laid on lots of different online resources to help new students out. Keep looking at your emails and the university's social media because events and opportunities are usually announced through those platforms.’

‘Online lectures mean you can live at home and save money’

Mariah Banton, 23, University of Bedfordshire

‘I was furloughed at work in August 2020 and didn’t want to go back to my job at the end of the pandemic so I decided to do a physiotherapy degree and applied through Clearing. Uni was very stressful at first as it was mostly online. With a course like this, normally you're in from Monday to Friday doing practicals and theory all together as a group, but I was having to learn all my anatomy and physiology by myself in my room - though we did sometimes go in on a Thursday for a two-hour class. Originally, I thought I wasn’t learning what I was supposed to be, but when I did my exams I ended up doing really well. Everyone on my course, except one person, lived at home since we weren’t expected to be in class in person very much so I ended up saving around £300 a month on rent and commuting (as I pay my parents £250 in rent). The one girl that was in halls regretted it massively as there was no one around.’

My advice to new students: ‘Online learning meant that I didn't have to spend time and money on commuting and accommodation. If there's the option of doing the course online, it's worth thinking about whether this will suit you financially and socially.’