A staggered campus exodus has begun, but lots of students are worried about what they’ll return to in the new year
It’s been a long, often lonely term for Helen Ross, who has spent most of it locked down in her cramped student flat in Glasgow with just one friend, studying law in her bedroom. She’s excited to see her mum again for Christmas, but anxious about going back to Ullapool, her remote home town of 1,500 people in the Highlands. “I don’t think I could deal with the knowledge I brought the virus home to a fragile and precious community, and to my family,” she says.
Ross is taking every precaution possible: she’s been self-isolating and will be driven north by a friend’s mum after taking a coronavirus test. She wants to spend time with her mum, an exhausted NHS worker who lives alone after her husband – Helen’s father – passed away during Helen’s freshers week. “She’s been getting through the last slog of the year by looking forward to having me,” she says.
