By Isobel Rix
With the coronavirus infection rate rising in Leicester, students are doubtful the travel window will provide much relief.
Leicester is currently 16th highest in the country for COVID-19 cases per 100,000 of the population.
A tweet from the city council on Monday (NOV23) encouraged people to continue following the rules to bring the rate back down.
However, many of the city’s residents feel they have been vigilant in following the rules and have seen no significant difference.
The rate per 100,000 people has increased significantly over the past two months with Monday (NOV23) seeing 158 new cases.
The government student travel window lasts from December 3 to 9, with face to face teaching at de Montfort University for the winter term to finish by December 9 at the latest.
Matthew Childs, 20, a Journalism and Film Studies student, said: “I feel as if it [the travel window] is hard to manage.
“Since I live in a house I can’t imagine them waiting outside your house to make sure you’re leaving on the right day anyway, so I don’t think people will stick to it.”
Emma Savage, 21, a Dance student, said: “I don’t think people will pay attention to it [the travel window] because hearing from other people on my course they’re making their own way home on dates that they decide.
“We’ve been given an assessment on the day we’re supposed to be travelling home so people are even less likely to travel on the allocated day.”
Georgia Sampson, 21, a Psychology with Criminology student, said: “I think the travel window is being used as a way for the government to say that they’ve done what they need to do so that they don’t have any blame on them.
“I think in practise it’s not actually going to work and, it’s okay in theory, but you’re making thousands of people travel on the same day, or use the trains on the same day, rather than filtering back as they would.”
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