A lockdown disaster: What went wrong in Manchester?
You wake up and casually look out your window where you are stunned to see a fence surrounding the perimeter of your building and the single exit guarded by security. I know what you must be thinking but no, you’re not having a nightmare about being in prison – you’re living in student accommodation in November 2020 at the University of Manchester.
Regrettably, on 5 November 2020, this was the reality for the University of Manchester students in the Fallowfield campus who woke up to a metal fence erected around the outskirts of their building. Sunrise brought with it security guards who operated the front doors, checking ID cards upon entrance. It was only until 3:30pm that those in the accommodation were officially made aware of the barrier, unsurprisingly via email. Students filled with potential and a zest for life (which was all but quashed by the University of Manchester), forced a protest that very same evening with hundreds emptying out of their rooms to tear down the barriers in political fashion.
I cannot say I blame them. With a 2-metre high barrier keeping imprisoned, they felt trapped and were afforded very little respect or dignity. Their demands were simple: to remove the fencing and to be treated equally like any other members of the public. It took the university less than 24 hours to realise the grave error that they had made. After removing the fences, they apologised by saying the barricade was put up due to concerns “about access by people who are not residents”.[1] These first-year students, many who were living away from home for the first time, were completely disregarded and offered little or no support.
To this day, there remains a contrast between what university students during the pandemic were promised and what was actually delivered. Students have been left to suffer by their universities and the University of Manchester is certainly no exception. Undergraduate and postgraduate students up and down the country sustained a loss due to a lack of promised face-to-face teaching. Across England and Wales, universities failed to provide in-person lectures, tutorials, practical sessions and seminars despite being integral to one’s university and programme experience. As courses were moved online and facilities closed, the education that students had paid thousands (!) of pounds for was not what they had received. Universities breached their student contracts and students deserve to be compensated for the losses suffered.
