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'm currently studying my third degree - a part time masters and I'm supporting my younger brother through his first degree (a subject I only studied at A Level), he is a mature student not much younger than me. My first degree I started about 20 years ago.

I think student expectations are very different now to when I studied my first degree. Lecture notes and PowerPoints are online (from both of our universities). I write pages and pages of notes during class summarising what has been said or making notes on additional things we are taught which aren't on the PowerPoint. My lessons are a mix of online and in person (much prefer going in) and he has asked me when he has been at my house when I've had an online class how I can write what they're saying so quickly - he has no concept of note taking because he just prints out the PowerPoint presentation. There are younger people in my class who always ask if the PowerPoint will be available online.

My brother studied a foundation year during covid restrictions (he's just finishing year 2 now) and the foundation year was all online. The service and support they received, particularly as a foundation year cohort who, it could be assumed, were not recently in academic study and who probably weren't the most academic students in school, was lacking. My brother had no study skills sessions (we have had study skills sessions on every degree or course (I've also done a couple of standalone modules ar both level 6 and level 7) I have undertaken at university). He had no idea how to reference, how to search a database for information or how to structure academic writing. I had to teach him all of this. Not the university's fault they couldn't do face-to-face sessions but I still think this should have been taught, and taught well, and would have thought the university would have prioritised teaching a foundation year cohort this information, even online. I don't enjoy these sessions, I find them tedious and would rather get on with the subject I am studying, but I do think they are important both for those students new or returning to academic after an absence and also when studying at a new institution as they all have slightly different requirements.

Facebook wasn't really a thing during my first degree, I think it came out whilst I was at university the first time. On my second degree, there was a very small cohort of us (fewer than 15 students) and we had a Facebook group for our cohort and the lecturers had set up a Facebook group for all the students. I've not joined the WhatsApp group for my current degree but my friend has. He says they are all panicking on there, stirring up worry between one another about lots of different easily resolved issues (are we in class or online? Which referencing style do we use? What's the submission date?). He asks me and the answers are easy to find but they just ask one another in the group chat and then make one another panic. He is very stressed about the course. I'm not, I'm enjoying it.

I don't think online teaching is as good as face-to-face teaching. I work with students who are out on placement. Even in their second year, most don't seem to have an understanding of basic concepts such as anatomy and physiology or the ability to apply this to practice. A number of them seem to be stressed or struggling with their academic work (and they shouldn't be, they are doing the same degree, coming out with the same qualification, both academic and professional, from the same university as my first degree). The only difference is that their teaching has been online whereas none of mine in my first or second degree was.

Hopefully as more teaching reverts back to face-to-face, students will have a better understanding of the subject and will therefore be less stressed or anxious about their assessments. Hopefully as the cohort who didn't sit GCSEs move through and graduate from university, those newer students will be more accustomed to assignments and exams. I do think we need to keep proper examinations, pen and paper, due to the increase in AI. The clinical component is not academic so whilst it needs to be passed on relevant degrees, the degree still needs assessing academically. I am a nurse supervising and assessing students, I can sign them off as competent in skills and tasks but I cannot grade them academically and contribute towards their academic mark as that is not my remit or something I am competent in. I can help them link theory to practice, identify learning opportunities or highlight areas they need more knowledge and experience in but their university needs to complete their academic assessments.

I think pre-university education needs to be reviewed. I have supervised and assessed a selection of students, young students who have come directly from school and college, and mature students who may or may not have had health or care experience previously. Those mature students who have come in via access to health courses definitely seem the most stressed, I don't know whether this is because they are the mature students who often have a family, money worries and a job or whether the jump from access course to university is too much.

I think extensions or extenuating circumstances should only be granted in exceptional circumstances. I have had one when my father was admitted for major surgery and diagnosed with bowel cancer. I had to care for him on discharge. I had to, quite rightly, provide evidence to the university though. I've had students who just haven't done their work who have had an extension because they've not had time because of placement (an expected event), one student had been on holiday during that time though.

but the kinds of teenagers that get those marks do tend to be perfectionists.

I have come to see perfectionism as an elaborate procrastination strategy, and a way of virtue signalling, without the stress of putting your words/ideas on the table.

I tend to call my students out on this - gently, but it's necessary. The essay (or book in my case) in our heads is always better than the one we eventually write. That gap is hard to contemplate, but it's part of taking responsibility for oneself.

I don't enjoy these sessions, I find them tedious and would rather get on with the subject I am studying, but I do think they are important

Sorry, just picking up this. We do them in my department & students don't turn up, one year, orchestrated a campaign that these were "boring" and should be replaced by more content. It's actually quite tough to face this kind of whingeing (not yours!) year in, year out.

And then field question after question about "How do I do referencing?"

Last year, when we reverted to in-person exams, we put on so many extra sessions and put together a lot of resources to aid with exam prep and revision. Barely any students engaged - they were able to engage with the protests about how terribly unfair it was that we were putting on in-person exams again, though.

Then, when we got to the exams, we got 100s of extenuating circumstances claims complaining that we hadn't prepared them for sitting exams and it had been "too stressful" as a result.

My department's referencing guideline is online, both on the departmental webpages and on their VLE programme pages. It is really not very difficult to find, but no one ever seems to be able to!

Are people genuinely surprised that teenagers/young adults are less resilient than fully grown adults with jobs and kids and all the life experience that goes with that? Youngsters did miss out because of covid in a different way to the rest of us - they missed out on growing, developing and starting to build that resilience, did they have it worse? Not necessarily but they were impacted - do some try it on? Of course they do as they always have

This isn't true (I say as an NHS therapist who treats anxiety disorders).

Anxiety is on a continuum and we are all on that continuum somewhere. It isn't something that 'happens to you' or you 'catch'. The more we listen to and act upon our worries and physical symptoms of anxiety, the worse it will become. The more we push through and realise we cope (even if it is unpleasant) the more manageable the anxiety seems.

As a therapist working with this cohort I would always say asking for an extension is the worst thing they can do when it comes to anxiety. Every time you give into anxiety it feeds it and becomes bigger and worse. Another week just leads to more heartache and procrastinstion, it doesn't give them space to relax. The only way through is to push through it (in a graded manner with support). Infantalising people will keep them stuck which won't be fair for their future.

I say this with absolute empathy for anyone experiencing anxiety as it can be debilitating. But giving into it doesn't help anyone.

Sorry I was replying to this comment but it didn't pull through!

Yes, completely agreed. I say to a lot of students that putting off deadlines till August (at a further distance from when they actually received tuition and into a very short assessment period, where they'll be sitting with the knowledge that they can't progress if they fail or don't sit the exams) will prolong and worsen the anxiety; whereas pushing through and achieving something, even if it's just a scrappy pass, can be empowering. Our department's UG tutor is very inclined to start dishing out 0 Absents rather than agreeing to the retrospective deferrals, because in a way it takes off the pressure for the students. They're on a second attempt, which is capped, so all they can do is pass and therefore the work only needs to be "good enough" to pass. But the powers that be have pushed back tremendously.

Reading through this thread with great interest as someone who is (a) the parents of a first year uni student DC and (b) someone who works in schools.

DC1 has ASD/ADHD, he didn't sit the 2020 GCSEs, mental health can be a struggle at times, he finds socialising hard, organisation is difficult because of the ADHD. As his parent it is a constant balance to try to support him and help him achieve - but without inadvertently enabling 'helpless I can't cope' kind of behaviour. The message I have always tried to give DS is that his diagnosis is a signpost for support but at the same time it is not a 'get out of jail free' card i.e. the fact he has ADHD does not mean he simply can't meet an assignment deadline. Sure, he needs more help and structured input to help him hand in on time, but simply not handing in, or asking for an extension, isn't a sensible option. As @Sunnyfeelgood says, much healthier to push through with support. It hasn't been the easiest year and he has needed a lot of support and reassurance - but he's made it through without needing to ask for a single assignment extension. And his confidence and course enjoyment has visibly improved as a result.

I am slightly playing devils advocate here but I think it is a parenting issue as well as a COVID/student resilience/anxiety issue. I'm not sure how many parents are helping their DC in terms of teaching resilience and coping strategies - much easier to say 'oh they have anxiety, they need XYZ to cope'. I see it all the time in my work - so many parents of primary school aged DC are enabling "anxiety" at the tiniest thing, rather than seeming able to actually be proactively supportive and sensible. And then they get to secondary and it gets worse.

Obviously in many cases students do have genuine mental health issues and require proper professional support. But there are so many situations where a bit of brisk, affectionate non-pandering and parental common sense can really help a child or teen. An alarming number of parents don't seem able to do this.

I wish I knew what the answer was @Jourdain11 but I think there needs to be a combination of unis AND parents (gently) toughening up a bit.

@FlyingPandas Thanks for this! It is interesting to read a parent's perspective. I am a parent, but my children are much younger. (Nevertheless, one of the students was STUNNED when I mentioned that my DD1 was doing Y6 SATs and said I must have had her when I was, legitz, a teenager. Not quite, although I was basically their age!)

I'm always surprised by the number of parents we have contacting the uni! I would have died from embarrassment if mine ever had when I was a student. I don't think it would've crossed my mind that they might, nor would it for any of my peers. I'm sure that this is a recent phenomenon!

The more we listen to and act upon our worries and physical symptoms of anxiety, the worse it will become. The more we push through and realise we cope (even if it is unpleasant) the more manageable the anxiety seems.

Thanks for posting this @Sunnyfeelgood

I'm not a clinician, but this is very much in line with the 'mental health self-help' I've been trained in as a personal tutor. Together with: set up a reasonable sleep schedule, and get up at the same time each day; eat proper food with a good balance of protein etc, and minimum of sugar & highly processed foods; get out in the fresh air for exercise every day.