Making accommodations isn't always 'kind' (uni)

[Jourdain11]

I'm interested in knowing general opinions on this. I would accept that the last few years have been tough for students, and UG finalists in particular have had their full course horribly disrupted. But I am struck by how the accommodations made for students have really not helped them, in a large proportion of cases. I work in a uni (London Russell Group, competitive and highly-rated) and the number of students who have requested deferrals and so on for MH reasons is huge. In my role, I pushed back a bit and said that we shouldn't be advocating this as a way of dealing with any level of pressure and anxiety. In some cases it was absolutely necessary, but in others I felt that it was just becoming a pattern or a way of buying more time.

Ultimately, in the careers many of these graduates will go on to have, they will have to work to deadlines and deal with pressure, and part of the uni experience is providing preparation for that.

We now have students who are very upset because they cannot graduate with their peers, who are very anxious because they've deferred half their year's assessments to a one-werk resits period and feel they will not cope, or who are just disappointed that they haven't completed the year and have uncertainty as regards progression. Plus those who have now come to see assessment as an absolutely terrifying and insurmountable thing because we have agreed that they clearly weren't capable of sitting their exams, when they probably were.

Overall, I feel that we need to be encouraging coping strategies and empowering students, rather than encouraging them to opt out on the most tenuous rationale. But some of my colleagues would consider this to be virtually heresy and I'm not sure how we're going to get out of this place we have found ourselves in.

I also agree. And I think in general, the term 'it's affecting my mental health' is used far too easily these days when what people really mean is 'I'm pissed off/disappointed/sad/stressed'.

I am also tired of dealing with parents who are too quick to step in and say 'I'll email whoever's in charge'. Then send me an email saying 'no one has tried to help' their precious DD/DS when a) it's the student's own responsibility to do XYZ and that's made very clear to them and b) they've ignored all the guidance we've sent them on how and when to do XYZ.

Rant over.

I haven’t read all this thread…..l had a normal teen until lockdown. She’s got debilitating severe anxiety and severe stress migraines. She’s 16.

l look forward to the support she’ll get at university. Obviously she’s making it all up despite being paralysed by it. If it was my dd you were speaking about ld hit the roof.

You seem quite class obsessed. I’m not suggesting that students and sixth formers had the worst time. My DS is autistic so I’m well aware of the dreadful impact on kids with SN. I’m simply saying that it isn’t reasonable to expect a population of teenagers and young adults to go through the experience of lockdown and come out unscathed and I find the lack of willingness to attempt empathy in relation to that deeply odd and quite disturbing.

I’m not actually disagreeing with the proposition that giving all these « get outs » is the wrong thing to do. It’s actually a tactic for avoiding the real issues this cohort has and it’s wrong. It makes the adults feel better because they are being « kind », when they are actually avoiding the real problems.

@TullyApplebottom some kids and adults will come through unscathed, some will not.

I don’t know any who have been unaffected. Certainly the potential for harm should be considered by those educating this cohort, not callously dismissed.

I would never suggest that someone was making up a chronic medical condition. For a start, it will (if she wishes) be documented and she will be able to have an individual learning plan, which will entitle her to adjustments. In my institution, this is usually extensions of a certain length with no need to provide evidence.

These requests would never be rejected, although I have sometimes had conversations with students about whether it's the best long-term plan: for example, if it is going to leave them backed up with assessments a month down the line and cause worse stress.

Even those who cite anxiety when it's probably more like natural nerves, concern or pressure they're putting on themselves - I wouldn't say they are making it up. More that they're misinterpreting a natural response as being somehow 'abnormal'.

On the other hand, when someone's requezt for an extension is declined and they then produce a convenient positive Covid test, I might have suspicions. Particularly if they tell me a month later that they've never had Covid 😉

YANBU. I went back to university last year. Out of 80 students, only 8 of us submitted our coursework on the original deadline. The other 72 got extensions.

In my opinion, the course was not any more stressful than it ever had been. Most were just under the normal amount of exam stress - it is really unfair for those students who are in genuine need.

I should say, this usually includes extensions of a certain length with no need to provide evidence.

I find the op’s attitude appalling. It really got me. Get ready for the ones coming through. My gp says they’ve had so many teens and young adults affected by it. She told me it’s endless, and incomparable.

So looks like you might need to cultivate a better attitude because you’re only dealing with the start of it imo. I’d be furious if someone was like that about my dd.

l was a secondary teacher for 27 years. All sorts of kids had problems. I never sneered behind their backs.

Could you tell me where I've sneered? Because that certainly wasn't the intention and I'm not seeing it myself.

I hesitate to type this post, because I am of the boomer generation, and I just know that the sky is going to fall on my head, BUT I took three academic A levels in 1974. English Literature, French and History. I sat five 3-hour papers and read about 20 books for English, including S level for which there was no preparation. I sat three papers and an oral in French, and two three-hour/four question exams for English and European history. I am generally helpful and so when my DS's friend asked me to read his final diss in European history (on Napoleon's campaigns through Europe) I did. And frankly my A level extended essay on George Eliot had clearly involved more and wider reading. He could have read Bernard Cornwell's Peninsular War novels and had more fun and a better understanding

l sat mine in 1982. Your point is? My ds gave me his history thesis to read. It was much better than my A level answer on the development of the railways in Victorian Britain. I sat one 3 hour paper. How could l possibly know more than him?🤷🏼‍♀️

What should we do with all the ones who don’t have documented medical problems like your DD, @ArseInTheCoOpWindow ? Should we just get rid of any deadlines, essays or exams whatsoever?

We’re not teachers; we’re paid to do research, and a whole lot of other things, as well as lecture. We’re there to teach the degree. University isn’t secondary school. We’re not doctors or mental health nurses or counsellors or their parents. Saying we are concerned that students aren’t being well served by the current culture isn’t sneering. If we didn’t care, why would we be bothered that they aren’t doing well?

Maybe he's smarter than you? Possibly he read more widely because he was genuinely interested? Or... just maybe... A levels are much easier, and require less reading. But it should not come as news to you that his dissertation was better than your A level answer. Three years older, apart from anything else.

My concern is that we grant these endless extensions, deferrals, etc. on tenuous grounds, not on a legitimate basis but as a tick box exercise. We've been 'considerate', we can say that we've made adjustments, but it doesn't actually help the students in the long run. In fact, it presents them with a bigger source of stress at this point in the year.

It is also profoundly problematic in relation to EDI, because we're essentially nullifying the adjustments which we offer to students with documented disabilities/health concerns/MH issues and they're therefore no longer on a level playing field.

I read through DD"s dissertation for her biomedical sciences degree and didn't understand a word of it 😂

Hmmm, see, I had several extensions because normal stress added to pandemic stress had tipped me over the edge from functioning to nonfunctioning.

As I said to staff when arranging them, it felt ridiculous, but the awkward truth was that the assessments were the only thing I could shift in order to get a bit of breathing space to start working on everything else.

We’re not doctors or mental health nurses or counsellors or their parents

Neither was l. But l did whatever l could to help and support. You seem to be implying that too much leeway is being given to students with problems. But l think it will get worse before it gets better. Maybe you need to adjust your mindset.

You seem to be implying that too much leeway is being given to students with problems

That isn’t what the OP, or other academics on here, are saying. Rather the opposite, in fact.

Even those who cite anxiety when it's probably more like natural nerves, concern or pressure they're putting on themselves - I wouldn't say they are making it up. More that they're misinterpreting a natural response as being somehow 'abnormal'.

Are they diagnosed?
If anxiety is affecting their ability to engage with normal life, then it is abnormal.
I think many young people and students have been sold the idea that MH is no longer a taboo and will be taken seriously through awareness programs etc, so they feel they can be open.
Unfortunately, attitudes don't shift overnight, even if people pay lip service.

The thing I don't quite understand is that, IIRC, the difference in results between disadvantaged students and, for want of a better word, "normal" students closed significantly during the "safety net" times. Isn't that a win for EDI?

I completely appreciate that and feel so sad for all the young people affected.

Not being goady but what is the solution? If we are talking significant percentages of young people struggling- what do we do when that generation are our GPs, nurses, bus drivers, bin men, scientists and they can’t cope with pressure or stress? The world will grind to a halt or be carried on the backs of those who are mentally well but the pressure will eventually get to them too.

Unless as young people who present with mental health problems we guide them down career pathways that reduce stress and don’t challenge them to the extent others would but then do they reach their full potential? Achieve their dreams or just what’s deemed suitable? As an adult in work allowances can’t always be made- you need to be reliable and dependable.

What does ability to engage with normal life mean to you?

Significant numbers of young people are struggling. There’s no mental health support for most of them.

Im hoping that by the time they get to mid 20’s or so they may have thrown off the shackles of lockdown and be like previous generations. But they may not. I don’t have an answer apart from much greater investment in adolescent and young adult mental health. Imo they are all about 2 years behind socially and mentally.

A d allowances do have to be made at work under the disabilities act.