COVID-19 has evidently had a very detrimental impact on many people across different sectors and groups society. If you are employed, self-employed, unemployed or a small-business owner, or work in a key industry such as the NHS, public services, public transport or education we have all — in some way or another — had to make drastic changes to our everyday lives.

Many have been offered state-funded financial support to help them through this crisis, but we also know that many have slipped through the net completely.

Students are another group that have been failed during the crisis, with little attention given to how the pandemic is impacting them.

Currently a third-year mature student in criminology, I still have several assignments to finish as well as my dissertation before I gain my degree qualification, but suddenly I find myself having to home-school two children, while my husband is trying to salvage self-employed work from home and our income has taken a huge hit.

I have had no choice but to defer completion of my degree until the end of summer.

This has a knock-on effect on our income, as I am now juggling finishing my studies, with no access to the university library or resources you expect when you pay to attend what is considered a first-class university worldwide.

I live in a rural area, so we have limited and temperamental internet access. Our family of four share one desktop computer and a laptop that are both around ten years old.

But are but one example, and probably one of the better scenarios compared to many others.

For instance, many doing a vocational degree in social work cannot register as a qualified social worker for at least another six months.

This is due to the course requiring a certain number of practice hours in a placement, and many students have been told that their placements will be paused due to Covid-19, although this is inconsistent.

One third-year social-work student said: “The university’s response to Covid-19 has in my experience been inconsistent. Some students have been able to continue placements, where others have been forced to pause or defer their degree until later in the year.

“We have found communication to be a big issue and feel that we have been left in the dark with many unanswered questions”

Another felt that the university had lacked empathy with students and that this has negatively impacted their mental health:

“We have received nothing but miscommunications which have been devoid of any sympathy and our mental health has declined as a result of uncertainty.”

“We have worked so hard for it all to be snatched away within six weeks of qualifying.”

For many of these students the delay in achieving their degree comes with huge financial implications that they feel are not being met — a six-month delay in qualifying can cost £10,000 to £15,000 or more in lost earnings.

In many cases those feeling the financial impact hardest are working-class and mature students who have already struggled to achieve getting this far in higher education.

But the suffering is not limited to final-year vocational and mature students. There are many international students who are stuck on university campus with no indication of how or when they will get back home.

Many are having to try to find employment to counter the impact of having to stay in the university grounds for longer than anticipated. Most will not qualify for Universal Credit (UC) due to rules regarding student loans and unearned income

Luckily, as a third-year student, at least if I finish this year I will be able to move on and although we do miss out on graduation with no definite alternative in place we will have somehow completed our degree. What about those in their first or second year?

With universities moving all work online for the foreseeable future this is going to have an unprecedented long-term impact on students’ education and future employability for years to come.

I asked one university lecturer for her thoughts and she said: “I’m very concerned about students that don’t come from the ‘traditional British middle class,’ the overseas students stuck on campuses can’t get home — the ever-increasing students that are working and studying at the same time — I doubt they will even be able to get UC until their courses end.

“Students at home caring for families and sharing laptops are hugely disadvantaged. They are not the responsibility of the government but the universities — which have in recent years spent millions, even billions, on buildings, marketing and PR — all I can see here is a tremendous lack of duty of care.”

It is the universities’ responsibility to set out consistent and clear plans for all students throughout the whole of the country, to consider their duty of care to students and ensure that no-one is left-behind or impacted negatively during this crisis, be it emotionally, mentally, academically or financially.

Mollie Brown is a member of the Communist Party executive, People’s Assembly north-east co-ordinating group and the National Assembly of Women.