Christmas on campus: The students who are a long way from home over the holidays

After a year of turmoil, university students were finally granted permission to travel home. But Qais Hussain speaks to those who never made it back

Nicholas, Sara and Jessica (Subject’s own)

Jessica Fielder won’t be at home for Christmas. The 23-year-old, who is studying management and Portuguese at Leeds University decided weeks ago that, despite students being allowed to travel in early December, she wouldn’t be making the trip back to Norfolk as she was worried about the coronavirus risk for her elderly grandmother, 82, her asthmatic mother, and her sister, who has a weak lung.

“Of course, I would love to go home, but it just doesn’t make sense,” Fielder told The Independent. “I will utterly miss them, but it is the right thing to do." She says her mother’s only wish is that she does not spend Christmas alone, so she will be celebrating the 25 December with a friend in Leeds. She will also be exchanging presents with family via post.

Fielder has decided instead to start her own tradition - she will be cooking Christmas lunch for the first time, although she is a little apprehensive. On the day itself she plans to do all the “normal things”: open presents, eat, and have a phone call with her family. Fielder is hoping to next visit her family at Easter. “My grandma should get the vaccine soon; and my mother should follow. Then and only then, will I visit my loved ones.”