*DISCLAIMER THIS INVESTIGATION IS NOW OVER SIX MONTHS OLD*
In March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK and changed life as we all knew it. The shops shut, schools closed, people lost their jobs and many even lost loved ones. On the 23rd of March 2020, the Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the first nation-wide lockdown. The public were told the lockdown would last just three weeks to flatten the curve and protect the NHS. But nearly a full year later the UK is still in some form of lockdown.
To students, it became an on-going joke that the prime minister was ignoring university students, the £9500 yearly tuition fees, the thousands wasted on rent for student houses that are not being lived in and the lack of mental health support. The student population were left to the small print of the government Covid-19 restrictions guidelines. Before the latest government announcement on the 22nd of February 2021, one student tweeted, “I hope the prime minister at least mentions university students today.”
Students are struggling more than ever with their mental health. The lack of routine, human interaction and pressure of university assignments are all contributing to high levels of anxiety and depression among young people.
The UK charity Mind reported that nearly three quarters (73%) of students have said that their mental health declined during the lockdown.
One student, 22, a final year university student, says she basically had to entirely teach herself one of her university modules. During the beginning of the pandemic her university told her in order to be able to remote learn and avoid the commute into London she needed to provide a medical note.
She said: “I remember sending an email saying this situation caused me stress, it caused me to be anxious because my mum and dad are in their mid-50s, I don't want to bring it back to them. I wouldn't want to bring it back to my family and loved ones. I don't wanna bring back to my boyfriend and his high-risk family.”
In the end she decided the risk of commuting into London and catching the virus was too high, but this decision had its consequences. She said: “So, after that I basically had to learn module by myself because obviously, I didn't provide a doctor's note, so I was refused remote access.”
But the obstacles didn’t end there. She also raised the issue of university students not being able to access the necessary software to complete assignments from home.
She said: “Another struggle was access to certain software, for example Adobe is quite expensive and my uni said they hadn’t renewed their license with Adobe, this was last spring, and we basically had access to a free trial, but if we’re supposed to use it for assignments and not everyone has access to it or can afford it – then what’s the point. The university’s responsibility is to provide all resources, all the software so we can complete our assignments and extra work we need to do.”
She adds that she is disappointed with the way she’s been treated by her university. The student also did reach out to student wellbeing, but their response was simply to do “whatever you can to protect yourself.”
Despite the challenges of these unprecedented times, not all universities have given students extensions for deadlines or extra support. She adds: “Currently at the time now there is talks of maybe doing an extension, but it’s February, nearly a year into the pandemic. That’s just ridiculous in my opinion.”
It’s not just academic support that is sometimes lacking, many students feel universities are not providing good enough support for student’s wellbeing. She said: “I just feel like overall they didn’t really care about student wellbeing, they lacked in that…it was a bit of a - I don’t want to say it but a bit of a pisstake.”
An investigation into student’s mental health and wellbeing during the pandemic looked at a sample of 50 universities from all over the UK and looked at the figures for how many students were seeking counselling in the beginning if the last academic year (pre-Covid,) in comparison to the beginning of this academic year.
Disclaimer – Every university records the number of students seeking mental health support in a slightly different way. Some keep record of those signing up to mental health services, others record those who requested counselling and others only record those who actually accessed at least one session. Due to this, these figures are only meant to show general trends and are not for exact comparison.
By the time of this article, 39 out of 50 universities responded in time to the Freedom of Information Act request for the data on their student support services.
30 out of 39 universities responded providing data that demonstrated a significant drop in those accessing or using mental health support from September to February of this academic year in comparison to the same period in the previous year.
Some universities saw significant drops in numbers, such as Oxford Brookes University who had 771 students using the counselling services in the beginning of the 2019/20 academic year, versus 461 in the beginning of this year. The University of East Anglia saw a dip from 873 to 474. Figures for the University of Southampton dropped by more than half, from 465 to 219.
Out of the sample of universities just two had the exact same figure for both years. The University of Huddersfield had exactly 245 for both years. Swansea University reported 736 consecutively but did note that during this academic year in December they had to close referrals because the services were full.
The University of Derby recorded a drastic dip in students accessing therapy, from 1357 in 2019/20 to just 508 this year. Although they stated: “Please note that the criteria for accessing therapy 2020/2021 has changed, we have no way of determining specific requests for therapy. All requests for support are triaged by wellbeing advisors to appropriate service, which could be University of Derby Therapy service, NHS, Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) or University of Derby Mental Health Team.”
Out of the sample only three universities recorded higher numbers of students accessing wellbeing services.
The University of Bristol has worked hard on what they call a whole institution approach. In addition to having a full-time university wellbeing service they have strengthened GP and counselling services so they can treat urgent cases on the same day. There are other services available such as The Students’ Union Nightline. They said it is, “A phone-based student-to-student support service. Nightline operates ‘out of hours’ (8pm-8am), every night of term, and trained volunteers answer calls and emails sent in by students about anything that’s troubling them.”
The question then is, why in such challenging times are students struggling more, but not accessing the support they need?
With the transition to online counselling, some members of staff working with students suggested the decrease in numbers is due to students feeling hesitant about online sessions.
Some universities have not even provided their students the safety net of a no-detriment policy. Danielle Herbert, a 22-year-old final year journalism student from The University of South Wales said: “The hardest part is not having a no detriment policy. That’s something that students have made explicitly clear.”
It was during the lockdowns that things started to take a real toll on Danielle’s mental health. She says: “Once the lockdown restrictions were in place, I noticed it started to have quite a detrimental effect on my mental health.”
Students who graduate this year will be graduating into a very uncertain world and this is causing high levels of anxiety and stress. Danielle said: “That is one of the biggest causes of my anxiety, thinking about graduating into the Covid era. Being a Covid graduate is terrifying because you really don’t know what that’s going to look like.”
Throughout her university life Danielle describes her experience with asking for mental health support from her university as a negative one.
She said: “I’m noted as a DSA student. So that means I have a disability. Which the university receives funding for in order to assist my needs. I found in the first two years of university I really struggled to get the support I needed… Even though I am a student who’s stated as having diagnosed mental health issues, I still found it really hard to get help.”
She also wondered if it was so hard for a student who is down on the system as needing mental health support to access counselling, how hard must it be for everyone else?
Despite being on the system as a DSA student and being allocated a mental health mentor Danielle says it was virtually impossible to access any counselling.
She said: “I attempted to access the counselling service multiple times in my first and my second year, pre-Covid and it was extremely difficult…you’re only allowed six sessions, you have to choose what you want to talk about before those sessions so they can make sure you actually get something out of it… someone needs to do a general assessment of you beforehand for you to be able to be even put on the list… I kept getting that appointment cancelled.”
Despite asking multiple times, Danielle did not receive any counselling until her mental health mentor intervened in her third year.
After fighting for so long to access her universities counselling service, once she got there Danielle was disappointed by type of advice she was given, describing the situation as, “a bit soul destroying to be honest.”
Despite the difficulty of the past few years, Danielle says she doesn’t regret going to university. She adds: “I think if you can graduate during Covid you can pretty much do anything. I think that will send a positive message to employers about the resilience I have.”
The University of South Wales provided the following comment about not providing a no-detriment policy.
A University of South Wales (USW) spokesperson said: “We understand that the ongoing pandemic continues to be a challenge and we want to reassure students that USW has a no detriment approach in place to support their academic progress.
“Ahead of the start of the academic year, teaching and assessments were reviewed and adapted where necessary, so that they could continue to be delivered remotely and students could continue to progress and achieve their learning outcomes.
“For this academic year (2020/21), USW has agreed changes to progression and award regulations.
“Assessment Boards will be more flexible in considering performance while balancing the need to maintain academic standards.
“The University has introduced uncapped resits for modules that count towards final qualifications; relaxed regulations around repeating assessments, and around progression; and provided flexibility in consideration of classifications at the boundary for final-year degree awards.
“Enhanced extenuating circumstances processes have continued to be available for students who have been disrupted as a result of the pandemic.
“While the situation undoubtedly remains challenging, we strongly encourage students to keep learning so as to give themselves the best possibility of succeeding and performing to the best of their ability.
“We also urge individuals to talk to tutors or USW’s Advice Zone about the support that is available to them.”
The university also provided a comment on their student support services.
A University of South Wales (USW) spokesperson said: “While we cannot comment on individual student cases, we would encourage any student who needs support to make contact with the wide range of student support services that we have available.
“Students are able to access support with the Wellbeing and Disability Team through direct appointments, bookable through the Advice Zone or Advice Zone Online, or direct email contact with the teams.
“We have also previously invited students to use ‘request for support forms’, and more recently introduced a Wellbeing Advice Triage service which students can access within 2-3 days of requesting support, and sooner if they require immediate support.
“Student wellbeing is at the heart of all USW activity. We have collaboration right across the University to deliver the high standard of student support and care for which USW is recognised.
“All faculties ensure that support is integral to students’ learning experience, either meeting their wellbeing needs directly, or referring to specialist support services.”
Another university student, Megan Price, 20, got the opportunity to write about the challenges of being a university student in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic for the Daily Express as part of their student campaign.
She said: “Being part of a student campaign I think is very important as it reaches new audiences of people who may be older and don't understand the struggles of what students are going through and I think that is bringing attention to the mental health crisis in students.”
One of the main components causing students all over the UK anxiety is the uncertainty about the world they will be graduating in, many are fearful of what the job-market will look like. After several years of university leaving them in tens of thousands of pounds in debt, some are still left wondering whether they will even find a job in their desired industry.
Megan said it’s this uncertainty about the future that is causing many young people anxiety and that it should be openly discussed because, “there is a lot that goes on almost like behind closed doors.”
Student issues are often overlooked and brushed off as not real-world problems. Megan says: “I think the thing that needs to be addressed more is less dismissal over student issues if that makes sense, so I think that there's still that kind of barrier between students who are struggling and talking about it and then possibly other generations or people who are in jobs and think that students are just being overdramatic.”
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