A Year On And Students Are Still Being Failed
A reflection on a year of distant learning.
Around this time last year, the final few months of my university term were abruptly ended as the UK entered a national lockdown.
After a lengthy summer, universities started the 2020/2021 academic year accompanied by the warning that the majority of teaching would be online. A year has now passed and I feel angry, frustrated, and most importantly forgotten.
I am a third-year journalism student. I pay £9,000 a year in tuition and I am not getting the education that I was promised. I understand that it cannot be helped, we are in the midst of a global pandemic and have to adapt to safe learning. But for £9,000 I should be given the full learning experience. My course, and especially my current semester, is extremely practical. Some of my assignments include making a magazine, filming a documentary and creating a website with all original content including interviews.
I am being asked to use software that I cannot afford to buy, but if I was in university would have free use of. Two out of three of my modules are group work and we have had to do entire projects over video calling and texting leading to miscommunication and lack of understanding. I do not have access to facilities at my university such as television and radio studios that were a big part of why I decided to attend my university. Some universities even stopped allowing taking books out of the library and it even got to an extent where the act of reading in the library was prohibited, meaning that they had to find other ways such as buying the book to complete mandatory assignments. Even when we were allowed to go into class there was an issue with their track and trace service meaning there was an incident where people who should have self-isolated due to coming into contact with someone with Coronavirus were not told.
Essentially, I am paying £9,000 to sit in my bedroom and stare at a computer.
Teaching is only one area where, as students, we are being failed. Prior to the pandemic it was hard enough seeking mental health services, but as everything is now online the process has become near impossible. Having to scour the university website hoping to find an email address that could potentially get you the services you need. And then having to wait months for a reply before being told to email someone else.
The lack of mental health support could not have come at a worse time, as in September 2020 a beaming batch of freshers were unleashed into university accommodation. Initial concerns were raised when the UK government told students they could still move into accommodation during a period when COVID cases were steadily increasing. Regardless, thousands of students flooded accommodations and mini outbreaks were observed across the country. They were then basically locked in their rooms, away from their families for the first time, and unable to connect with others in a similar position.
Instead of improving the useless mental health services students were blamed, labelled as perpetrators, and left to fester in COVID hotspots.
Blame is a key theme in this whole situation. Students and young people in general have been accused of causing an inflation of COVID cases, but there is hardly any research to back up those claims. We are easy targets, often associated with partying and rebelling, but in actuality we are angry.
We have been starved of our education, paying way too much money for learning that is not going to be substantial when we go into industry. We have protested, written to our local councils and signed petitions calling for some support, such as a lowering of tuition fees, but the government shy away from the reality. Ignoring students longing to get a full education.
So, what are we to do? We have raised our voices and demonstrated our anger, yet we have been shut down. It is hard to keep fighting when you are being belittled by the people who are supposed to be supportive. But being resilient is the only way that we can cause change and by taking actions, such as writing to your local council, which can have an influential impact on the overall improvement of the education system.
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