Spare a thought for the class of 2022 – the Covid generation. Across the country graduation ceremonies are being held for students who earned their degrees in the midst of a global pandemic.
It’s been a rough passage, many of these students spent little time in their universities. Instead they watched pre-recorded lectures, joined seminars and workshops from their bedrooms, and had little or no face-to-face interaction with classmates or their teachers.
Any lecturer will tell you that often students learn more from an informal chat in the corridor after a lecture, or by debating issues with their peers over a cup of coffee.
The consequences of lack of physical contact over this past two years has been profound for their learning.
As you might expect, some students have transcended the challenges, and will be entering the world of work with excellent degrees. But for others this past two and a half years or so has been a nightmare.
Isolation at a time in their lives when socialisation is critical to their intellectual, physical and emotional development has left many struggling with their motivation. Zoom calls don’t compensate. Humans are pack animals, we need contact with others almost as much as we need air to breathe.
The impact on the mental well-being of this generation of students has been enormous. Levels of depression are frightening, and many young people suffer from a range of anxiety disorders.
The systems in place to deal with the crisis are totally inadequate.
Always the Cinderella of the health service, the NHS is ill-equipped to provide the support needed. Waiting lists are a joke, and when they do get into the system, patients are passed from one healthcare professional to another, with little continuity of care. (By the way, it’s not the fault of the doctors and nurses.)
As a consequence, universities have been forced into the frontline of mental health care for young adults.
From the outside, the bookish world of the academic looks idyllic. The reality is a world where government underfunding has forced managements to run their institutions like cut-throat businesses – getting staff to do more and more, with less and less; cutting costs to the bone; chasing research income and international student fees.
The academic year is punctuated by an endless round of assessment – performance reviews, teaching reviews, research performance audits. Work is allocated on notional ideas of the time it takes to prepare lectures, mark assignments, provide counselling and support, deal with the bureaucracy of admin.
And into that mix comes the role of health and wellbeing counsellor to young people who are burned out even before the flame of learning has begun to flicker.
I don’t have much visibility of what has been happening at primary and secondary levels – my children are both in tertiary education. But, from what I hear, we have a cohort of young people working their way through the system whose development has been blighted by the impact of Covid, and who will need additional support to reach their full potential when they move into higher education over the next couple of years.
There is no sign that the resources are being put in place for them.
Yes there is a ton of stuff online, I can point you in the direction of 101 websites with brilliant advice on managing your stress levels, coping with anxiety, dealing with insomnia. I can give life advice until the cows come home (much to my own children’s distress), but that is no substitute for the type of professional support these young people need.
As a society we are in denial about this crisis.
And the one thing I know is that the higher education sector is not where this collapse in mental health should be managed. Clearly our universities and colleges have a role – and a significant one at that.
But there needs to a coordinated strategy – driven by the Department of Health – which brings together those who understand the underlying causes (and it’s not just Covid), those who are actively engaged in the lives of our young people (parents, guardians, teachers, lecturers, and ‘influencers’), and properly funded healthcare professionals who have the resources to help these patients heal.
And, as a society, we need to give this generation hope: hope that their lives will not be blighted by sectarianism, violence, and poverty – issues that will not be remedied by a political system in paralysis and by politicians who are more interested in sustaining their prejudices instead of their people.
