大象传媒

With university staff trying to police student antics, the youngsters have been increasingly resourceful as they find new ways to party late into the night. They show no signs of stopping as Covid cases start to rise. Hundreds are now in isolation and some freely admit the risks they took and would continue to take. They feel that nothing can effectively dent the socialising as they forge new friendships.

Anoushka reveals what is really happening, talking to new students as they settle into halls and find their feet. She has taken a job working in a nightclub and as the new 10 pm closing time hits home, she takes her recorder to track what happens next, with friends dispersing to house parties and hall gatherings. Her phone is buzzing with news of new Covid cases and she ventures off to find out what is happening to those in isolation. Might this finally make them see sense?

The recordings are presented by Anoushka, who last year won the New York Radio Festival award for her Radio 4 documentary Degrees of Love. In an earlier programme for The Untold she tracked her decision as she weighed up whether being mixed race would make it hard to accept an offer at Cambridge. In this programme she provides insights into student life that help explain why infection rates have peaked and how strongly students feel about being scapegoated.

She remembers how hard it was during her first year as she tried to settle in and cope with home-sickness - and that was only twelve months ago, when the full array of Freshers Week activities was running. For this year's intake there are mostly virtual get-togethers and many students talk about the difficulty of trying to forge friendships against this backdrop. They say they have been all but abandoned by institutions which are keen to charge them but much slower when it comes to helping them adjust.

Produced by Sue Mitchell
Presented by Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty