Mental health support at Uni - social sports clubs would help not just for elite players

[Neapolitanicecream]

Hello all my YP is struggling with loneliness at a Uni that was considered top last year !!!! A lot of the clubs are on paper only so it looks good on someone CV 🤔

her cousin at a very sporty uni is thriving at a midlands uni renowned for sports, (so he thought he wouldn’t get into any clubs) but the uni have inter-houses social football…. Brilliant idea to support YP mental health.

please please so called top unis with amazing sports facilities please introduce social sports and not just for the elite

@TrouseredTed

its hard to appreciate that you can be lonely in a crowd if you try but no follow up. as you don’t see people regularly enough

Tech doesn’t help tbh. In the old days you basically had to either socialise ( be it church, rugby or the satanist society) or be massively massively bored. I remember sitting in my room being utterly terrified but I basically had no choice but to go to the bar because there was literally nothing else to do. If I’d had a phone I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gone. A lot of things I got involved with at Uni were boredom busters more than things I was hugely passionate about.

As others have pointed out student sports are nothing to do with the university. They are organised by the students themselves, via the SU. The university sometimes provides the facilities (although in some universities sports facilities are owned by the SU) but the organisation of clubs and societies is on the students.

I have to say I see it totally differently to op. I disagree with what you are asking for.

Actually, I'm confused by what you are asking.

Loads of unis have loads of different clubs, different levels. Loughborough is the most sporty, so you are bound to struggle to get into any football team. Don't they have 6, and even county players can struggle to get into the 6th. But they have dept football teams. And ones just for fun where they just fancy a kick around.

At Nottingham, Birmingham and Durham they have tonnes of clubs, tonnes of sports, for serious players, and mucking about in canoes at the gym pool. Surely dc can find something?

If it's mental health issues, that's a totally different issue whatsoever. university student services, support groups, speaking to their tutor, going to the GP, booking online counselling. There's loads and loads of different options. Have you investigated every single avenue?

"I’m soooo disappointed as is YP not to have got into any of the sports teams (they were very sporty at school) but the teams only interested in semi pro players. So the renowned facilities are out of bounds for them and a whole group of YP players who would enjoy the inclusion and interaction. "

I'm sorry but this sounds very naive. I was well aware that many unis are like this.

Not my experience with 3 kids though uni - all did society / club/ department / college type sport - very social and not serious - and really enjoyed it . Oxford college and Leeds Uni - both brilliant for not 'serous ' social sport

DS2 is at York. Has always played in a football team from being young (and been very average tbh) but he's joined his colleges team at uni and plays socially every week. It's been great I have to say. Really got him mixing.
DS1 played Basketball at Notts in year one having never ever played before. I think he made the 7th team!
It's a shame it's not like this everywhere given the benefit of sport for mental health.

Is it ARU? They seem to have lots of non-elite sports.

I think the OP is particularly disappointed about their DC's specific university and all the international-level sporting facilities and opportunities that seem hard to access unless the student is an elite sportsperson. This university does sell itself on the basis of these facilities, as well as the high academic standard. The fact that the university makes a big noise about the elite sportspeople who attend the university is in retrospect a red flag. It gives scholarships to elite sportspeople and attracts the best.

PPs who suggest lesser known sports as easier to get into have identified the problem indirectly. Avoid the elite sports and the focus won't be on elite sportspeople.

There are two walking clubs I think, one that is hard-core out in far-flung parts of the UK hiking and climbing at the weekend when your DC might want to study, but there is another lower key one that does local walks around the town apparently. Ditto taking dogs in the local shelter for walks gets a student some fresh air, unless your DC has a dog phobia like mine.

In my experience at this stage of the academic year everything student-related switches to exams and teaching stops in term 3. Maybe your DC should plan for social activities next year. There will be more options if they are living off-campus/in town.

As to the getting on with the degree part of it and not worry about social life, my DC has been crippled with loneliness, utterly desperately miserable and this has badly affected the degree part of it. Loneliness should not minimised or overlooked. It is very widespread, but can be invisible since many students simply go home at weekends to try to avoid the issue. That leaves campuses at weekends populated with the extroverts and the international students who can't go home, and the social/sporting clubs become dominated by both, which can mean a quiet introverted home student can become isolated.

Universities are not "money making machines" comparable with investment banks or oil companies. They are mostly running at a deficit due to the erosion of the real value of the student fee.

You come across as terribly naive and slightly entitled OP. Our actual healthcare system doesn't take a preventative approach to mental wellbeing, why would you expect a university to do so?

If your kid is too shy/introverted to able to make a good life for himself at uni then maybe he needs to take a gap year and grow up a bit.

@Sunnnybunny72

It's a shame it's not like this everywhere given the benefit of sport for mental health.

this it’s so important for everyone esp young people

Why will nobody say which university this is? It’s impossible to comment without knowing it.

looking at recent universities of the year which are also “top” universities I’m guessing Warwick? Bath?

op could your daughter join something obscure? My DC is loving underwater hockey! Nobody is an expert at it since they’re all new to it.

Ultimate frisbee, pole dancing, climbing, Zumba… there are loads.

When a uni has 40+ % of first year students with mental health problems PRE-PANDEMIC I don't think it is the student that is at fault!

This is where unis with a collegiate system may be beneficial. I just had a quick look at the ones I could think of ...York, Durham, lancaster all seem to have various college sports teams /intercollegiate sports as well as obviously Oxford and Cambridge.

This.

UK student fees only cover 60p in the pound of what the actual costs are.

Then this idea that adults need the University to provide their entertainment is just bizarre.
As you don't want to identify the University (fair enough) then no-one can show you all the opportunities they are there, but what is clear are there are so many opportunities (both within the University and within the towns and Cities in most places) available but the adult has to be prepared to go along and literally say 'can I join?' or, go to the SU and say 'can I start a {whatever the interest is} club.
These are 18 or 19 yr olds, not 11 yr olds.

Has your DD tried cricket. My DD plays at uni and is very average. She is ant uni of Manchester and they have lots of girls join who have not played before.

They might not play in the 1st team, but they join in the training and social activities.

Name one top uni that does not have intra mural sports leagues? I am unaware of any that do not offer all kinds of sports at all kinds of levels.

It would be good if you would disclose which uni this is so people can avoid it.

I can only assume you won't name the uni because you don't want anyone to link you to the social sports clubs they do have at that uni because if you genuinely though they don't exist you would name and shame them.

It can't be BAth because here is their social offering https://www.thesubath.com/sport/join/

I don't think there's any need to name the uni. As many other pp's have said OP is maybe deluded, entitled and naieve. This isn't a fault of the said un-named uni. It's OP's viewpoint.

What is the real issue here? Child very shy and not engaging? MH issues? Not being able to get onto the team for a super deluxe Uber sporty uni.

pp's have given solutions to all of he above.

But if you are still going to insist : x uni is rubbish. (zero information about the course, the teaching, the student uni life generally, the campus facilities, the catered accommodation) etc etc. solely based on : my kid can't get into the football team. Then quite frankly you'd be laughed out of court. As a fool.

If it's a different issue. Then please say. Mn is incredibly supportive for most issues.

It is also up to the student to seek out things to do either uni based or in the local area of where they live, unis cannot do it all and I presume sports/clubs run with some volunteers so they would need all these run by people willing, also enough of an interest

Or they can see about running them themselves?

People complain alot about things but what effort do thet put in themsleves to help?

Of the top universities-
Oxford and Cambridge clearly have loads going on and surely aren’t basing their marketing on sports.

St Andrews is known for being small and dominated by oversea students (mainly Americans hoping to meet a royal) but has lots of clubs afaik
The top london universities - well they are always going to require the student to make much more of an effort because they’re city based so that was predictable.
Loughborough - clearly attracts the sports elite and often the moderately good sports kids don’t pick it for the very reason you’ve outlined but you seem to like Loughborough so it can’t be there.

Lancaster is full on sports/social opportunities since it’s both campus and collegiate and they have inter college stuff plus annual Roses war with York university.
Durham also collegiate so I’d imagine there’s intra and inter college stuff (it was DSs second choice and he didn’t express any concern about their offering)
Warwick is well known as being a little staid and reserved with a large international body so could be Warwick. I know a student there who ended up joining the maths departments football team because he couldn’t get into any of the various main teams.
Bath - see pp links above
Bristol known for not being great on the pastoral side but I know nothing more about them.
edinburgh - see comments re london

Are you hard of comprehension?
The op did not say they don't have clubs , or that her dc was too shy to go.She said the sports club was not appropriate for beginners/ intermediate players, and many of the advertised societies do not actually exist or at least meet.
I have a good idea which university it is. If I am right, the place has had negative publicity a few years back for having student mental issues, and is now looking to tick all the wellbeing boxes, without necessarily following through.