STUDENT appeals for rent reductions at university accommodation because of Covid-19 restrictions bore fruit in Glasgow.

The University of Glasgow yesterday announced free rent for a month for the 2800 students living in university flats. Students will also receive a £50 payment into their university accounts which they will be encouraged to spend at local restaurants and food outlets.

The announcement came after growing complaints from students that they were being blamed for a rise in coronavirus cases. Students were also told not to go to bars and restaurants this weekend and faced isolation in their flats if they tested positive for the virus.

After Tory Health Minister Matt Hancock refused to rule out asking students not to travel home for Christmas, students interviewed by the Sunday National said they were feeling victimised simply for being young.

Hancock’s comments were in stark contrast to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said she felt “heart sorry” for students and assured distressed teenagers they are not to blame for the spread of the virus.

Positive cases in Murano student halls at Glasgow University have reached nearly 200, with hundreds of students now self-isolating within their flats.

One student living there, Emma Gaston, 18, from the Scottish Borders, said first-year students are being unfairly vilified as a major outbreak was predictable.

“There was never going to be a chance that if you put over 1000 students together that they weren’t going to try and socialise and have parties, so blaming us is a bit unfair,” she said.

“When we moved up here people were having flat parties but then there was more campus security brought in and more visits from the police. A lot of people then took to just standing in the street in groups of about 30 to drink.

“There was never going to be a way to stop the virus from spreading. I don’t see what else they expect us to do. I know you come to uni to learn but another side is the social aspect and meeting new people.

“We were invited into accommodation as if we could live some sort of student life. It should have been thought through before that this was going to happen. Anyone could have seen it coming.”

Gaston, who is reading psychology, said the university lead her to believe that although her lectures would be online life would be as normal as possible. She was under the impression she would still be able to socialise and meet the people that live around her in halls.

But as restrictions have tightened with the university hastily trying to curb infections, she has found making friends difficult.

“It’s only [people in] your flat that you can socialise with, so you’re stuck with strangers. Not everybody gets on with their flatmates and I’ve found it can cause tension if you’re all cooped in together.

“It’s put me off a bit. I can’t go out and meet other people so it makes it hard for me to want to stay there. I was visiting home last weekend and then my flatmate tested positive so I’m not going back up to Glasgow to sit in the flat and self-isolate for two weeks.”

Emma is now seriously considering moving out of Murano as the university experience she is receiving is nothing like she expected.

“Being from the Borders, I was looking forward to the experience of living in a new city, but it’s totally not what I expected. I came to first year thinking I’d have some sort of freshers’ week but it’s not happened.”

A petition had been started by Glasgow students in a bid to lower university accommodation prices since the current Covid spread is hindering students from living their lives.

Another petition was launched by the National Union of Students Scotland, appealing to Scottish universities and private student accommodation providers to allow students who have returned home to cancel their rent contracts without penalties.

It states: “We are asking all Scottish universities and private student accommodation providers to do the right thing to help their student tenants during this global crisis.”

There are currently about 250,000 students in Scotland, with up to 35,000 living in university halls and 10,000 in private halls.

So far, virus outbreaks have been reported at university accommodation in Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

Students living in Bainfield halls at Edinburgh Napier are enjoying their first weekend of freedom following two weeks of self-isolating within their flats, after being hit by what was thought to be the original Covid outbreak within Scottish university accommodation.

FLATMATES Penny Devlin, 19, and Lane-Maxine Murdoch, 18, are exasperated that “young people are being blamed for acting like young people”.

Murdoch feels especially frustrated after leaving her family home in Connecticut, US, to study maths communications at the university only to receive a first-year experience quite unlike the one she hoped for.

She said: “On one hand, it’s a nice change to have some guidance from the Government which is so different to back home. With Nicola Sturgeon it’s so much better in comparison to what I’ve had to deal with in the US, but on a university level it’s almost just as confusing as it is back home.

“We are getting blamed for a lot of these outbreaks which feels unfair as there hasn’t been enough dialogue from the university. They are partly responsible for having all these students come together. They made that decision.

“What frustrates me is that we’re getting blamed for having parties. If you take a bunch of teenagers that have been socially deprived for months now, and let them start university and live together, what else do you think is going to happen? It’s almost like the university said, ‘Come stay in accommodation, we’ll take your money, we’ll have you live here, then we’ll blame you when everyone gets sick’.

“I’m happy to be here and to have nice flatmates but it’s physically and mentally claustrophobic.”

Devlin, who is studying business with marketing and comes from Duns, agreed: “We’ve been allowed out but then we’re blamed for it. We’ve been to the pubs and out for food but then they’re telling us we’re doing it wrong.

“I think we’re being victimised. We’re in an eight-person flat with others from completely different counties, so if they hadn’t allowed us to move in we wouldn’t have had these outbreaks. The amount of people we came in contact with each night is probably the reason we’re in isolation. We all found we were in contact with someone positive.

“There’s a courtyard out the window which would have been full of students every night and now there’s no-one there. Everyone is in their kitchens wearing masks so it’s completely not what student life was meant to be like. I am enjoying it because our flatmates are quite close, but it’s not the experience we were expecting.”

Nicola Sturgeon appealed to students directly during her press briefing on Friday, making it clear they do not deserve to be blamed for the Covid campus crisis.

She said: “I know some of you feel as if you are being blamed for the spread of Covid right now but that’s not the case. You don’t deserve to be facing this. Nobody deserves to be facing this right now and it’s not your fault.”

The students are calling on their university to make a solid decision on how they should live instead of the influx of different restrictions, which Murdoch said is giving first years “rule whiplash”.

Students were, for example, told not to go to pubs, parties or restaurants this weekend.

Murdoch said: “There’s about 30 people on this floor and we all use the same lifts, stairwells and touch the same door handles and we know the other two flats have tested positive. Yet, we’re mixing with them anyway when we go into the corridor. We are a cluster.”

It’s not just first years that have strong feelings about their treatment by the universities.

Phoebe Reilly is undertaking her fifth year of studies at Glasgow University – the first of her accelerated law course – and feeling angry at criticism levelled at students.

“The whole demographic is being targeted, when there’s people like me who haven’t broken the rules,” she said. “I think the university should have been more honest about the situation. They’re a bit money-grabbing and wanting students to be here when a lot of them would have had a much better quality of life if they had just stayed at home.

Universities in Scotland have agreed to introduce a “yellow card, red card” approach for breaches of student discipline that put students and others at risk. In serious cases, students could face disciplinary action which could end their studies.

A Universities Scotland spokesperson said: “Universities worked incredibly closely with Scottish Government and public health teams over the summer to plan a cautious return to university, based on a blended learning model.

“The return of universities this September was consistent with plans for phase three of the Scottish Government’s route map. Guidance to support the return to campus was designed by Government; it is in place and is being adhered to meticulously.”