Students, stress and anxiety

[Jourdain11]

I work in a university and it's the middle of exam season. For most universities this is the first year returning to in-person exams, but actually not for the one I work in.

These last few weeks have been a constant flood of deferrals, issues in exams, requests to cancel their attempt and retake in August. Some are very well justified, others not so much. Unless there has genuinely been a breakout of gastroenteritis in student halls which has incapacitated every student for a full two weeks.

Since Covid, there seems to be an accepted get-out clause on everything. If you don't want to do it, you just don't! Yet I worry that it is not helping students in the long- or even short-term. They are backing up assessments and at some point they run out of road and it's even more stressful. And meanwhile, workloads are unmanageable.

What can be done about it? Do universities just need to be tougher? Everyone is worried about possible harm being caused, but I do worry that by trying to alleviate stress for the few, we're creating a ridiculously permissive situation for the many, which is not to their advantage.

Or, if so many students are genuinely so stressed and anxious that they cannot do a single exam - what needs to change?

I agree. I was on that WIWIKAU (maybe) last spur where parents were saying their children couldn't manage this or that or could only eat findus crispy pancakes and I thought the same. University is not the right place for them, there's other alternatives at 18.

I will agree that university is not for everyone. However, I think we should be catching more people in their last couple of years of school to identify those students and educate them on different, equally valid career paths.

If some people were never right for university and we wait until they get there to tell them, we've done them a disservice.

I agree. We ought to have this attitude right the way through, from Primary school upwards. I don't mean bully or frighten students. Obviously we should help and support them as much as possible. But children should be pushed. England is now ranked fourth in the world for childhood literacy, behind only Hong Kong, Singapore and Russia. We've never been ranked so high. I know teachers (and parents) dislike league tables, homework, constant testing, and so on, but it works.

Personally, I think children should spend at least an hour a day working in exam conditions. I went to an Essex comprehensive in the late '80s, and it was utterly crap. Half the lessons were ruined by disruptive kids, and the whole "get in groups and discuss" nonsense was just an excuse for messing about.

If I was Prime Minister (unlikely, I admit), my number one priority would be education (in all forms, from Primary school to post-grad to apprenticeships). No matter what the cost, I would make our schools the envy of the world. Education is key to everything: health, GDP, crime...all of them can be improved through education. The better educated a society is, the wealthier, healthier and more civilised it tends to be.

Currently a mature student, was previously at Uni in the late 90's. Everyone seems to get extensions now, I have no idea why. I have to admit that part of me thinks if I can get my assignment in on time as well as working 30 hours a week and having 2 dc, why are they struggling. It's annoying to be honest, deadlines don't seem to mean anything and there are no consequences. Equally it's apparent in the workplace. I think uni's need to come down harder on this to be honest, a lot of students are going to be for a sharp shock once working.

I think your post is a bit rich OP given the marking boycott! You are criticising students for not doing exams you lazy beggars cant be bothered to mark!

The medicalisation of anxiety is a big problem. We all get anxious about stuff, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. Some people really do have problems with it, but others just use it as a buzzword.

I’m noticing the same thing.

I have a number of disabilities and it’s written into my support plan that due to these I should be able to get extensions on request. I’ve actually never had to ask for one - I think I’m about the only person on my course who hasn’t had one 😐

I am genuinely awful at time management and organisation so I do wonder what everyone else is doing…

@nighthawk99 it's not about not being bothered, it's about trying to get more reasonable working conditions. I know several who are marking on the downlow as they care about the students so can release the marks as soon as the boycott is over. I think people have a glorified idea of what an academic's life is like, and frankly it has been shit for years.and I say that as support staff.

DD is only y12 at the moment. Since COVID she's really struggled with anxiety. I'm very much a "woman the fuck up" kind of person and have found her lack of resilience difficult, so while supporting her, have definitely not pandered to it. For weeks before, and the whole time during her GCSEs she was throwing up daily and had chronic insomnia. She's not coping with A levels and the GP wants to prescribe anti anxiety meds, which I'm not keen on, but I don't see any other way at the moment. I'm actively deterring her from considering uni as due to the independent study, personal responsibility and general expectations, I do not think she will cope. Of course, all her mates want to go so she thinks she should, but it's not for everyone and she simply will not cope. I'm advocating for a year (at least) out, get her head together and consider what she really wants because pursuing a course and expecting significant adjustments because she can't meet deadlines or even ask the tutors a question mean she is not university material right now. I don't mean to sound unsupportive because I really am, but she needs to understand that some things are not suitable at the moment and will make her more stressed and she needs to manage it rather than expect the world to adapt because she's chosen a path that is not right.

I'm not an academic or a UCU member. Also, I know plenty who are and are not participating in the boycott.

Yep, me too, and I totally agree.

I think half the problem is that many of the students at university haven’t sat in person exams ever or have only sat one year of school exams and then flung into university exams which are hugely different. . I know that my dd sat 4th year school exams in person and she is now in 2nd year at uni and this is the first set of in person exams she has had.

ds has just sat his 4th year exams at uni and this is the first in person exams he has done at uni.

covid has knocked a lot of students confidence and self esteem is at an all time low.

The OP just says they work at a university, doesn't say they are a lecturer.

And people taking part in industrial action don't do so out of laziness or because they can't be bothered - on the contrary, they are sick of being taken advantage of, being expected to do more and more work all the time "to help our students" while having, in real terms, pay cuts instead of pay rises. And in jobs that are highly specialised, requiring a huge amount of expertise, but are increasingly casualised.

I'm not a lecturer but I do work in a university.

Regarding the OPs points about extensions, exam anxiety etc, my concern with it all is that extensions are supposed to allow people facing adverse circumstances to have a level playing field with others. As we get more lenient with extensions it's actually disadvantaging students who really need it.

The snowball effect is a massive problem too as pointed out by others - some students get themselves into such a mess that it's impossible for them to successfully complete. I do get frustrated with those who repeatedly ask for extensions but refuse to engage with support services, and those who hand in everything months late but are then surprised they can't graduate with everyone else never cease to amaze me

YANBU OP, I also work in a university and we're also seeing the same problems. I was sympathetic last year but less so this year. There are of course students who are genuinely struggling and I'll go to bat for them, but we're definitely seeing convenient covid cases and migraines that mean students can coincidentally defer their hardest exams to the summer.

I had some degree coursework deferred by a few weeks 30 years ago because I was rushing back and forth between home and uni due to big family problems and was properly depressed. So it's not a new thing. It's good that serious cases are being taken into consideration, but it shouldn't be an excuse for half the cohort, or it becomes meaningless.

Covid has a lot to answer for. The difference between my DD19's and DS17's GCSE/Alevel/Uni prep experience is stark. DD didn't do GCSEs and missed out on that formative process of revision, discipline, managing stress etc. Did A-Levels in and out of a college which had more online learning than most. Couldn't attend uni open days in person and partly due to that is now at a uni that she doesn't really like and wasn't a good choice for her. DS meanwhile has had the rigour of sitting GCSEs, has had a 'normal' Y12, is attending summer school in person at our local uni and will spend the next few months going to open days (on his own) and making a careful choice about where to apply. Both are extremely academic and capable but guess which one is the less anxious and more self confident? Yes they are different characters and that might always have been the case, but living through Covid deprived young people of many important experiences and I believe some of the effects of that are now being seen. It also taught that cohort that nothing is set in stone. If a whole set of national exams can be ditched overnight, and schools be closed for months, what's the big deal about an essay extension?

It's of course good that serious cases are given proper consideration. But this morning, I came in to find upwards of 100 deferral requests awaiting my attention. (That's 100 students, not 100 single assessments.) Of those, probably about 10 are genuinely not in a place to be able to sit and probably 2 or 3 are genuinely in crisis and need urgent help. But working through that volume means I'm simply not able to identify and help those who need it in a timely manner, or at least not consistently.

We got more funding for temp staff last year, too. Because of cuts, we don't have it this year. Considering that we did have in person exams last year (probably very outing, since we were apparently the only uni in the whole WORLD that did) I was hoping this year would be better, but so far I think it is worse!!

I'm sorry to say that I've been a bit shitty about the Covid tests which blatantly have lines drawn on them with green felt tip pen...

Ours are allowed self certify for minor illnesses up to a week. Disaster.

Deferring to the summer puts extra stress on academic staff who a) need a break and b) need to do research and go to conferences in order to deliver the research led teaching that is expected, network for grant collaborations etc. They don't get the summer off, clearing for example. Student expectations are becoming unreasonable. They want hand holding the entire way through, see themselves as consumers, but fail to realise that the fees have stagnated, and don't even cover staff costs, estates costs, library, IT, mental health support, which has massively increased but still isn't enough. I'm out of the sector after 25 years in a couple of months, and am sad to see where we are now.

Lots of people are accessing HE who shouldn't be as they can't cope, we need to look at that. For example, my dept did an assessment re btec student and a level students post first year progression and had to raise the btec offer as they just weren't able, despite taking up 70% of the learning support officers' time

This is obviously an issue re jobs requiring degrees that shouldn't do.

My hallowed institution is supposedly one of the top places in the country for certain disciplines and has a very competitive applications process, but there still seems to be a lot of students who can't cope with the course.

Its been sold as being fine for everyone, it's not. Some excel, more struggle, and staff have to deal with that given senior management targets, OfS, Ref etc, it's a shitshow right now. I thought I'd stay in HE for my whole life, but after all this time am taking vser and wondering where to go.

PPs are

Oops! Meant to say:

PPs are right that it’s not setting students up for the real world.

I had feedback this week that when I say to a graduate “can you do x piece of work this week please” it “feels more like an order than a question”, and I should have “more regard for what time frame they think is achievable”.

Well, I’m your boss, our clients are paying us significant amounts of money to deliver work on time and you’re pair relatively well to help make that happen… But I think a lot of it does come from this post COVID culture that we take for granted that we can just ask for more time.