Opinion | The British approach to University needs a rethink

By Seb Sultan, Third Year Politics and International Relations

Our illogical approach to higher education in this country has left our universities rife with mental health issues. If we’re to get serious about tackling the mental health crisis, we need to ask fundamental questions about our approach to higher education.

In Britain, teenagers starting university are usually dropped-off in a totally new city, expected to live in a totally new way, in an unfamiliar institution, without any family or close friends. Many ‘full-time students’ have only 9 contact hours, only three of which are compulsory leaving their time almost entirely unstructured.

Most people are told what to do at work, they know what time they need to be in, they have specific tasks to complete and they’re supervised by managers. But if you’re at university, society expects you to structure all but 9 hours of your week, alone. You’re expected to seamlessly transition from being a child with school every day, closely supervised by teachers and parents to being totally responsible for yourself, with a level of autonomy far exceeding that of most adults.

The system makes it difficult to get to know others on your course and leaves students feeling anonymous.

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There are different people in each seminar group and there are very few seminars. Most students don’t even show up to lectures. Attending morning lectures often means choosing between not socialising the night before or running off 3 hours sleep. The fact that they can be watched online, makes it entirely rational for students to skip lectures.

‘Going out’ means getting extremely drunk and dancing to loud music, not having conversations and building strong relationships. Nights out finish in the early hours of the morning leaving students with the choice of either waking up at a normal time, feeling hungover and exhausted, or waking up in the afternoon and seeing only a few hours of sunlight.

With only 9 contact hours, there’s usually nothing to wake up for in the morning anyway, so students often wake up in the afternoon. The dilemma can be escaped only by missing out on time with other people.

At home, you can talk over meals to family, tell them how you feel and enjoy some real food. In university flats, students often don’t eat together. The kitchens stink, the surfaces covered in mould and the bins overflowing, leaving students understandably reluctant to cook. The price of good quality food further drives students to opt for a diet of pot noodles, toast, pasta and pizza leaving them undernourished. Fruit and veg can be expensive and difficult to prepare, so many students just don’t buy them.

Nothing feels less free than a total absence of support and structure.

Students in other countries spend all day learning, not 9 hours a week. They get to know their peers and their teachers much better and feel part of a community. Adults work 9 to 5, they know where they need to be and what they need to do.

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We know people need structure to thrive and that we benefit from living with people we love and trust, so why are students expected to thrive without these basic human needs. Needs which are afforded to almost everyone else. Freshers are instead left in an unfamiliar world to live with strangers in filthy accommodation. It would be surprising if there wasn’t a permanent mental health crisis. We need to fundamentally rethink the way we do university in this country.

The solution is more structure, not less. Lectures need to be compulsory and attendance recorded. We need more modules and more seminar time, less reading and fewer assessments. Students should get credits for attendance and first year must count in a small way towards degree classification. The personal tutor system should be extended. Flats should be encouraged to eat together; cleaning rotas should be mandatory and every student accommodation needs a large common area.

Our culture of attending a university in a different part of the country is very unusual by global standards. In other countries, students tend to live at home, attending a small local university. Being small and local creates a strong sense of community. This does mean forgoing the ‘prestige’ of having attended a ‘top’ university, but is the additional knowledge gained (if any) from being at a ‘top’ university really worth the roughly £20,000 we spend on housing costs over 3 years?

Our system leaves us with two lives, a university life and a home life, each with different friends, accommodation, co-habitants and totally different routines. At home we’re expected to be different people to the ones we are at university. The need to constantly flip between these two lives is difficult and it cannot be good for our mental health.

My proposals aren’t seeking to treat students like children; most adults have much more structure in their lives than what I’m calling for, let alone children. The fundamental nature of university is driving a permanent mental health crisis amongst students. Rather than focus on treating the symptoms with slogans like ‘#destigmatise’, ‘it’s ok not to be ok’, ‘talk about it’, let’s start tackling the structural causes of the crisis and build a healthier university experience.

Featured Image: Epigram / Cameron Scheijde

Do you think that the British University system needs to change?