The UK’s 18-year-olds can’t catch a break. Only weeks after the A-level furore, students are now being asked to self-isolate in university halls in cities from Manchester to Glasgow. Reduced face-to-face teaching and limited opportunities to socialise or even leave accommodation is not the university experience they were expecting until recent months. And satisfaction scores may suffer.

Helen Higson, professor of higher education and deputy vice chancellor at Aston University, explains how universities can seek to deliver a positive experience for students, even in the current circumstances.

Students aren’t the only people at the rough end of the pandemic. New research shows that breastfeeding rates tumbled as a result of lockdown, while the rise of working from home is likely to mean more people putting in shifts while sick – with negative effects in the long term.

Further afield, researchers have discovered a new possible location for life on Mars: subglacial lakes deep below the planet’s south pole.

Grace Allen

Cities and Young People Editor

Kzenon/Shutterstock

How universities can ensure students still have a good experience, despite coronavirus

Helen Higson, Aston University

Students can still have a good experience at university this year – if universities take their needs and concerns seriously.

Researchers asked over 1,200 women about their experiences with breastfeeding during lockdown. Prostock-studio/ Shutterstock

Breastfeeding during lockdown: how coronavirus had a devastating impact on some new families

Amy Brown, Swansea University; Natalie Shenker, Imperial College London

New research finds that while some women thrived during lockdown, others found breastfeeding to be difficult and overwhelming.

Easily done when working from home. Prostock-studio / Shutterstock.com

Why you should call in sick more often than you think – even if working from home

Alison Collins, Manchester Metropolitan University

If you can work from home you're less likely to take a sick day, and that could be a problem.

There seems to be a network of underground bodies of liquid water at Mars’ south pole. NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Mars: mounting evidence for subglacial lakes, but could they really host life?

David Rothery, The Open University

New findings boost chances of finding life on Mars, but there are better candidates in the solar system.

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