Participants expressed complex emotional reactions to COVID-19, including physical exhaustion and a range of psychological responses such as frustration, uncertainty, anxiety and fear. Fear was alluded to not only in the context of the risk to themselves and their families of contracting COVID-19 but also in respect to a sense of guilt they would feel should they receive a positive test result and risk spreading the virus to others. While a minority were less concerned by the virus, there was widespread acknowledgement that the pandemic had impacted significantly on mental health for both students and staff, “in the beginning when it all went into lockdown it felt really alien and it made me quite anxious” (P128, female, staff, academic). Students expressed frustration with regard to the negative media representation of university students, and they perceived mixed messages from the government had encouraged them to “eat out, to help out”, and subsequently “blamed students for going out, and spreading COVID-19”.