Being a university student during national lockdown

When we think of the university experience, scenes of freshers’ fancy dress, foam parties, hungover mornings in the library and questionably nutritious meals might spring to mind. However, students on their academic journey over the last two years have had a very different time. 

Of course, doing a degree isn’t all about partying and spending your student loan on pizza, which is why most people studying in the United Kingdom pay tuition fees to receive their education, but the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the majority of teaching moving online with minimal time on campus and fewer resources available. 

While I don’t doubt that hundreds of lecturers and professors have done their best to provide high-quality tuition over online video calls and presentations, unfortunately this medium of delivery just isn’t a realistic solution for all courses or students. Bachelor’s degrees are approximately £9,000 in England, leading to many young people putting themselves into debt in order to pay via loans – a risk worth taking for most when they have all of the university’s resources at their disposal, but this is no longer the case, with some students I know having never stepped foot on their campus or met any coursemates or lecturers since beginning in September of 2020.

With no face-to-face teaching on most courses, and reduced access to the library, students are missing out. Furthermore, the introduction of online learning puts those with no access to sufficient internet connection or equipment at a disadvantage. This covert classism also applies to those who have returned to their families but are still having to cover their accommodation costs despite not living there, leading to some abandoning their course due to financial struggles. In addition, international students are stranded far from home, facing the same obstacles, but in some cases in a brand new country with no family to rely on.

I, personally, began studying a Master’s degree in Media Production during January of 2020. A few months into the course, the coronavirus was detected in the United Kingdom and we were put into lockdown, leaving myself and my peers unable to work as normal in groups, access specialist filming equipment, editing suites, television studios and a myriad of other resources. This was devastating, causing some students to leave the course, and the rest of us to do our best with our own limited, and often low-quality equipment. Despite this, we did complete some less practical modules online, but I feel not all of us got the chance to show the scope of our creativity and skills in trying to produce quality projects during such an unprecedented and unusual time. 

It’s important to mention the impact this has on students’ mental health, not just their academic performance or results. I am lucky to live in my home city and study there, but the isolation and pressure so many are facing is incredibly concerning and, despite the wellbeing team being fantastic at my institution, support is now being offered over the phone and for a shorter period to allow for the high volume of students struggling to speak to someone.

My own mental health was greatly impacted, not only by the collective worry of either myself or loved ones being infected, but in losing my routine and time with peers. The first lockdown was particularly difficult, and I began experiencing mental health symptoms that I hadn’t in years that became frightening and out of control – however, those few hours of online learning gave me a sense of purpose each week, despite the concern about finishing the course, and the disappointment in not being able to access all the equipment and hands-on learning that I had taken out loans to be able to afford. In addition, as Media Production students, my peers and I were very aware that on graduating it was going to be even more tricky to break into the industry due to extra precautions and smaller crews.

Graduations have also been cancelled, and while necessary to protect others and ease pressure on the NHS, it’s disappointing for many graduates and their families who have persevered and achieved their degrees in the face of adversity.

Numerous petitions on the government website have been circulating and debated in parliament – notably, they include:

- Reduce university student tuition fees from £9,250 to £3,000, which currently has 568,756 signatures and has been debated and rejected.

- Require universities to partially refund tuition fees for 2020/21 due to Covid-19, which has 270,480 signatures and has been debated, with students being told if they are unhappy with the quality of their course to complain to their provider or the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education.

- Reimburse all students of this year’s fees due to strikes and Covid-19, which has 353,129 signatures and has been debated, with advice being that students should complain to their provider and if their concerns are unresolved they can ask the OIA to consider their complaint.

Being left in the dark about when they will return, how they will be assessed, and how to get support are just some of the challenges current students are facing, with universities denying students extensions relating to lockdowns, and it is clear that hundreds of thousands of those people are incredibly unhappy with their experiences. 

Unfortunately, it would seem this new way of learning and pursuing a degree may be the new ‘normal’ for the coming years, in which case universities need to think about how they are going to deliver quality courses online, justify the tuition fees, and have a detailed action plan on how they will support students, because charging nearly £10,000 a year to stay at home reading from a screen just isn’t acceptable.