The University of the West of England (UWE) are enforcing a rule, in which students staying in UWE accommodation are not allowed outside visitors. Students are forbidden from having any outside visitors within their accommodation in the first-term, also known as the ‘settling term’. This is the term in which students are statistically the most vulnerable to declines in mental health, and, rather fittingly, most likely to drop out of university and return home. Although settling in and getting to know your flat-mates should be a priority, throwing a bunch of young adults into an entirely new environment in will be an overwhelming experience, which will only cause distress and therefore reduce student satisfaction.

This rule is not being enforced in studio apartments, and those who are fortunate enough to be able to afford their own kitchen and living space are allowed one visitor. This, as clarified by a spokesperson for the university’s social media, is due to the fact that a shared kitchen can increase the transmission of disease, and so, instead, students will have to travel elsewhere to meet their partners, friends and family members. If students are still allowed to travel wherever, and mingle with whomever, they like, then why is this only an issue when inside select accommodation?

As per government guidelines, which many students, like myself, have been strictly following for almost 2 years, people who have been in close-contact with those who have tested positive for coronavirus, are no longer even required to self-isolate anymore - as long as a PCR test shows negative, and they are double-jabbed. Current government guidelines also state, very clearly, that there are “No legal limits on social contact, indoors or outdoors.” and that all coronavirus restrictions, in this time, have been lifted. So why is there an undiscerning isolation rule - which no one can even seem to make sense of?

The aims of this petition are to encourage the University’s Accommodation Team to review their policies around visitor allowance under controlled methods, in line with government guidelines, and to provide consistency across different classes of accommodation.