Sheffield university students on being blamed for spike in coronavirus cases and limits of ‘rule of six’

But for young people returning to their studies this month, the university experience will be a major step away from the norm, both in terms of their education and the social side of things too.

Measures introduced by the government to help curb the spread of coronavirus mean, in most cases, they will be swapping lecture theatres for online classes in their student digs, while other traditional passttimes have been curtailed by the new 10pm curfew on pubs and bars and the ‘rule of six’.

In Sheffield, some residents have raised concerns over students breaching coronavirus rules – however students say this is not the case with many feeling like they are being left to foot the blame for the rise in cases.

Jed Penberthy, a second year sports journalism student at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “This is our first year in student housing meaning we’ve got new neighbours to interact and socialise with. The first few weeks in July there was still people bouncing around and it was a nice happy atmosphere.

"Now that everybody has come back there’s less people to interact with because we’re trying to stick within the rule of six, the bubbles and things like that.

"Before the rule of six came in there were still student parties, we were still inviting people round and getting to know people that way. When the rule came in it all just stopped.”

The 22-year-old from Devon returned to Sheffield in July with the threat of a further lockdown constantly in the back of his mind.

He added: “When I came back we were just coming out of lockdown and through July we were just going to the pub every couple of days or so.

"Then August happened with the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ and we were encouraged to go out and spend all of our money and now we’re getting the blame for the second spike.

"It’s getting a little bit frustrating everytime I turn on the news to see that there's another slight verbal attack on students at the moment.”

Alison Romaine is in her second year at the University of Sheffield studying architecture.

The 21-year-old from Portsmouth said: “Freshers are expected to stay with people in their halls and that’s quite a big ask because you might not get along with them.

"Being in second year we thought ourselves very lucky because we’ve already established our friends and have that social support at this time.

"I just think students are being blamed. People are saying we go out and have fun but actually there’s a lot of anxiety around starting university, making friends.

She added: “Everyone is wearing masks especially when they get into public areas where it’s not just the student community.

"We’re all super aware and super careful. We’re just going about our lives, it just happens to be that we’re in a big group because that’s our flat or whatever but that’s seen as something bad or dangerous.

“There’s a lot of shifting blame onto us when actually there’s been no mitigation or help for students, we’re just expected to adapt.”

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