Jade Iglinsky

IT is an unforgettable rite of passage each year for hundreds of Camden teenagers: a move out of the family home and their first fortnight of freedom at university.

But this year students who left north London to study will forever remember the start of their undergraduate course for all the wrong reasons after spending “freshers” week locked down in halls of residences due to the coronavirus spread.

Jade Iglinsky, a former Acland Burghley and La Swap pupil from Highgate Newtown, is among those immediately stuck indoors at Leeds University, where she has begun a degree in psychology and philosophy. Within days of arriving, students in her block had contracted Covid-19.

“We have set up a residents’ group chat and new cases are being reported every day,” she said.

Most of the teaching sessions are pre-recorded, to which Ms Iglinsky said: “It does mean you can watch them any time, but it is also a shame not to get to meet the other students on your course.” One of her new flatmates has shown symptoms and is awaiting a swab test result, with everybody in the flat having to stay in as well.

Her mother Lyn said: “When they first announced all lectures till Christmas would be online, there was the thought: what is the point of filling up the halls of residence? Lockdown is not easy for anybody. Going to a completely new city and moving into a dormitory with people you’ve never met before is a challenge.”

Another undergraduate coming out of La Swap, Anya Mitchell, said she had been caught up in lockdown measures almost immediately after arriving to study history at Glasgow University.

She said 150 positive tests had already been recorded in her halls.

“Most of the flats here have been forced into lockdown. Some of the bigger houses hold 12 people and they are all having to self-isolate. We have been doing their shopping for them, and a food van with free burgers has been coming past,” she said.

Anya Mitchell

In London, University College London, based in Bloomsbury, started term last week and said they have created some face-to-face teaching but “opportunities to join us on campus in the first term will be significantly reduced”. It added that apart from a small number of researchers and building staff, all work was being done remotely.

They have also introduced a new reporting system for anyone showing symptoms, and are trialling temperature checks at its Gower Street buildings.