End of term and travelling home for Christmas

The Department for Education has published guidance setting out how university students will be able to safely travel home to spend Christmas with family, if you choose to, once national restrictions end on Wednesday 2 December.

They have created a ‘student travel window’ from Thursday 3 to Wednesday 9 December, during which you will be supported to travel home – ensuring you follow all Covid-19 safer travel guidance and provided you are not isolating due to testing positive or being notified by the NHS test and trace system.

As you will have just completed the four-week national restriction period, this window has been put in place to reduce the risk of transmission to family and friends at home.

We will be putting plans in place across the University to ensure that, if you are planning on travelling at the end of term, you are all able to take up staggered departure dates within the allotted time, in line with government guidance. If you are currently living in our halls of residence, please email reshub@solent.ac.uk with your departure plans. 

This will mean that we need to minimise face to face teaching from Wednesday 9 December. However, for courses that require access to specialist facilities, work is being carried out across our faculties to ensure that this does not negatively impact your learning outcomes. Course leaders will be in touch with all students directly to discuss any impact on timetabling or assessments and to ensure you feel confident you can complete this semester's work successfully.

Please note:

• If you are a healthcare student on placement, you are considered an essential worker and should remain in your placement until the end of term. You can then travel home for the holidays, following all public health guidance.
• Our maritime students in the Warsash Maritime School - who are key workers and following programmes that are not tied to university semesters – will receive individual guidance from their course teams.
• If you choose to remain at university after Wednesday 9 December, there will be a risk you may have to isolate here for up to 14 days (if you contract Covid-19 or are identified as a contact) and therefore may not be able to travel home in time for Christmas.
• The Office for Students has created a range of FAQs covering the end of term, which you can read here.

Already booked a rail ticket?

The Department for Transport (DfT) has announced that students who had already booked train tickets to travel home for Christmas, before the announcement of the student travel window, can now rebook their tickets to travel between 3-9 December without paying additional fees.

Students who bought an advance ticket before 11 November for a date of travel after 9 December can now change their advance tickets to travel during the window without paying a change of journey fee of up to £10. Flexible tickets such as 'off peak' or 'anytime' can already be rebooked to another date without payment of an admin fee.

For international students

If you’re an international student, you are also permitted to travel home from Thursday 3 December, but please make sure you have:

• Checked the Covid-19 entry requirements for your destination - Some countries may have requirements around receiving one (or more) negative Covid test results before departure and will differ per destination.
• Spoken to your travel insurer and checked for latest developments at your destination.
• Planned ahead to avoid busy times and routes.

Self-isolation for UK arrivals - The UK’s Transport Secretary has announced that, from Tuesday 15 December, arrivals into England will be able to reduce their period of self-isolation on receiving a negative Covid test result. Find out more >