A Reflection on Freshers Flu 2026: What Can We Learn for Next Year?

The start of term is, at best, a period of uncertainty and adjustment. Returning students know well the anxiety of starting new modules, pitch-black walks from 5pm lectures and the looming dread of the December exam period. What we also know to expect is the annual resurgence of ‘freshers’ flu’, which, year after year, returns to plague our student population. Even those of us who, by whatever miracle, manage to avoid getting sick cannot fail to notice the chorus of coughing, sneezing and sniffling throughout TB1 lectures and seminars.

So, what exactly is it about these first few weeks of the academic year that makes students so uniquely vulnerable? This has much to do with the geographical diversity of a university cohort. As people arrive from across the country and beyond, they bring with them their own distinct viruses. This cocktail of pathogens makes illness almost inevitable.

Adding to this, your immune system is already effectively running on empty due to poor sleep, poor nutrition and alcohol consumption that come hand in hand for most during Freshers’ Week. Bring these together, and you’re looking down the barrel of a week spent shivering in bed while assignments pile up amidst a sea of snotty tissues.

But thankfully, no flu lasts forever. As the coughing through lectures dies down and our ailing housemates slowly start to emerge from their rooms, freshers’ flu seems to have, at last, loosened its grip for another year. But before we put the misery behind us all together and look forward to warmer days, let’s just turn our thoughts to what we can learn for next year. 

The first thing to keep in mind is your diet. Being away from home paired with the excitement of fresher’s week can sometimes mean that what you are eating is not necessarily on your list of priorities. Whilst the post Brass Pig trip to Jason Donnervan is something of a rite of passage, be sure to include a balanced variety of fruit and vegetables in your diet. Your flatmates can be a great help here. Cooking together can take the pressure off making home-cooked meals when you are sick and is a fun alternative to blowing your maintenance loan on Uber Eats. Remember, a well-balanced diet will give you a running start in the fight against freshers’ flu!

Sleep is another thing which often suffers in the first few weeks of term. We’ve all been there, half dead in a 9am seminar, shell-shocked from the previous night’s antics and the subsequent two and a half hours of ‘sleep’ (if you can call it that). But people often forget that sleep is part of your front-line defence against disease and that the more your sleep suffers the more vulnerable you are to sickness. Remember, not every night has to be a movie!

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It’s also important to wrap up. Of all the paralysing decisions we face as students, from housing to careers, none comes close to the agony of weighing up whether to bring a jacket out and firm the cloakroom fee or to try and endure the bitter winds of Bristol in October. However, although it’s inconvenient and expensive, staying warm is absolutely crucial in fending off illness, especially during nights of heavy drinking. Think of it as an investment. A few quid spent on the cloakroom is well worth it to avoid a week of missed lectures.

Finally, it is important to know when to stop. When you feel your throat start to tickle, it’s probably time to think about staying in for a night. This goes for uni as well. It’s important to not push yourself past the limit, so if this means skipping a lecture and staying in bed till noon doomscrolling, so be it. And remember, one of the great things about being a student is that whilst we are afforded all the privileges of living independently, we always have the option of fleeing home when things get too much. When you are ill it’s good to be somewhere where the heating is free and the fridge is full. 

To tell the truth, fresher’s flu doesn’t discriminate. Whether you are a first-year being swept up in the excesses of fresher’s week or a final-year student looking to stay in and knuckle down, nobody is truly safe so stay warm, eat well and get your beauty sleep.