UK coronavirus live: university students face stringent controls amid Covid crisis

The Scottish government is facing a backlash over strict rules for students that were introduced last night following a series of coronavirus outbreaks that have left more than a thousand students self-isolating.

Universities Scotland and the Scottish government have been accused of blaming students for the outbreaks, as it was announced that this weekend students will be banned from pubs, bars and restaurants, while strict socialising rules will remain in place.

These include not mixing outside their household, the adoption of a “yellow card/red card” disciplinary system which could lead to students losing their places, while police will help tackle rule-breaking.

To the consternation of parents, Scotland’s national clinical director Jason Leitch has also said that students cannot return to their family homes.

The Universities Scotland guidance met an outcry last night, with NUS Scotland condemning the new rules as showing “a complete disregard for students’ mental health and wellbeing”.

But this morning, Scotland’s higher education minister Richard Lochhead said the government was reviewing guidance on students self-isolating and urged universities to be “pragmatic” if parents wanted to see their children in exceptional circumstances.

He told BBC Radio Scotland: “”If there was any young person who was not coping, who was very anxious, we would very much understand if their parents wanted to meet them or take them home.”

Last night, NUS Scotland president Matt Crilly said that the guidance took the “unjustified step of applying different rules to students over and above the rest of the adult population”.

“These measures are deeply concerning- not least to those students who rely on income from hospitality jobs. Having different rules for students makes it even more confusing to stay within guidance which could make things less safe,” h said.

But health secretary Jeane Freeman insisted that he government was not blaming students:

Hello everyone, I’m Jedidajah Otte and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments from around the UK in all things politics and Covid-19 for the next few hours.

Ministers face fresh questions today over how chancellor Rishi Sunak will pay for his coronavirus bailout schemes, after the Office for National Statistics announced this morning that the UK was £2,023.9bn in the red at the end of August, £249.5bn more than at the same time last year.

And we’ll be looking at Scotland, where hundreds of thousands of students have been banned from socialising as coronavirus cases spread to more than 20 universities across the UK.

As ever, feel free to get in touch if you have pertinent updates to flag, or would like to share tips or comments. You can get me on Twitter @JedySays or via email.

I won’t always have time to respond, but I’ll read everything.