Thousands of students are stranded in universities across the UK as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, prompting calls for support from vice-chancellors.

Among them are international students from all over the world who have been unable to get flights home, and UK students who are stuck because they have no other home to go to, either because they are care leavers or are estranged from their families.

As the scale and severity of the pandemic became apparent, universities around the country told students their lessons and assessments would go online and in recent days many have gone home for their own safety.

International students who either failed to book flights quickly enough or could not afford to now find themselves stuck in the UK for the foreseeable future.

Morgan Fairless, 22, a final year politics and philosophy student at the London School of Economics is unable to get back to his home in Uruguay as flights have been cancelled. “The reality is I have no way of getting home for the foreseeable future. I’m OK being here, but it’s also about your family members back home. For now everything is fine. I have no idea how long I will be fine for.”

Vincent Carse, 22, a third-year economics student at LSE, can’t get home to Sydney, Australia. “The crisis unfolded a bit quickly for me. I decided to stay, but it’s dawned on me that I can’t really leave if I want to now. That decision needed to be made a week ago.”

On Tuesday, the University of Sunderland began to physically shut down its campus in line with government guidance and meetings were underway about how best to look after the remaining 800 students who have been unable to leave, including 230 international students, some of whom could not afford flights home.

“My heart goes to those students,” said vice-chancellor, Sir David Bell. “For most of us, yes, this is difficult but we’ve got family to surround us in one way or another. For our international students it’s really hard to think what they will be feeling. We will be trying to do all we can to support them.”

John Cater, vice-chancellor of Edge Hill University, where about 200 students are stranded unable to go home, including international students from China, Africa and Europe, said: “The first thing we are concerned about is making sure the students and staff are as safe as possible. The majority of students have gone home.”

Those who remain are being moved into ensuite accommodation with just a couple of students in each flat to help ensure physical distancing. University staff are loading up fridges and freezers with food and providing cleaning materials.

A particularly vulnerable group are students who have left care or are estranged from their families. Campaigning groups who support them have written to every vice-chancellor, urging them to support students who are stranded at university with no family networks during the Covid-19 emergency.

The letter, from Stand Alone, which supports people who are estranged, and the National Network for the Education of Care Leavers, said: “For many of these students, university or college provides their home, their support network and their stability.

“We ask you at this difficult moment to make sure they continue to be provided for and can feel safe and supported. It would be a catastrophe if any of our estranged or care experienced students found that they had to leave university as direct or indirect consequences of the current circumstances or were made homeless.”

One student, who did not wish to be named but is estranged from his family and has nowhere else to go, described self-isolating at a university: “A lot of friends that have families have gone. They’ve left. The campus is barren. It looks dead. No one is here.”

He said there had been general emails to all students, but no direct contact from his university offering him support as a vulnerable student. “All of our facilities have been closed from 5pm yesterday. I can’t access the library any more. I had a part-time job with the university. I don’t know what’s happening with that. I’m worried about money.”

Universities UK, which represents vice-chancellors, said many UK based and international students had already returned home. “However universities know that some students, international students who do not have a home in the UK, care leavers and others, will not be able to do so and have been planning accordingly to ensure they continue to support those students.

“Different universities will have different challenges but a key focus will be on ensuring these students have everything they need and have plans in place to ensure that critical services – heating, water and electricity, for example, are maintained. In some cases, this may mean students being moved from their normal accommodation to places where it is easier for the university to ensure they are looked after.”