With the Covid pandemic far behind us, life has gone back to normal. But has the virus had any lasting effects on the university, and if so, what kind of effects? What, if anything, has improved, and what things will never return to the way they were? In this series of articles, UKrant looks into how the pandemic affected education, student association life, and our social behaviour.

The Dutch three-kisses greeting is in decline. Shaking hands is in decline. The elbow bump is still in fashion, but kids blowing out their birthday candles? Not so much. 

The Covid pandemic left its mark on our lives. Five years since it started, we still work and study from home much of the time and we hold meetings over Zoom or Teams. But our social behaviour has changed, too, and that’s not just visible in our avoidance of handshakes and kisses, says associate professor of developmental psychology Bertus Jeronimus, who studies the societal impact of the pandemic as part of the multinational project PsyCorona2020+.

It’s only natural that our social behaviour would change a bit, he says. Because we didn’t just fight the virus using our immune systems, but with our behaviour as well. ‘It’s like a second layer of defense, which relates to how we act in our social world.’

Pathogen avoidance

The idea of that ‘second immune system’ arose long before Covid, from observations in areas with many viruses, like the Middle East. Its position as a crossroads of trade and pilgrimage facilitated the spread of pathogens. Also, the closer to the Equator, the higher the prevalence and diversity of pathogens.

People made their world smaller

‘Cultures adapt by promoting pathogen-avoidance behaviours. Generally, people there are more introverted, less cooperative, and less open’, Jeronimus says. ‘That’s because in a context where dangerous viruses are more common, you wouldn’t be too eager to invite strangers into your personal space, since you don’t know what they’ll bring.’

That’s what happened after the pandemic as well. ‘People made their world smaller. They socialise less, they go to mass activities less. There has been a 30 percent decrease in participation in things like festivals and other collective events.’

It’s a way to be extra cautious, Jeronimus believes. ‘Even our personal space got bigger post-pandemic. For example, when people stand in queues now, they keep more distance from others. It’s the same when being around strangers.’ 

Absenteeism

But how does all that translate to the university environment? Are UG students these days more careful when sitting next to someone in class? 

Probably not, but they may just not come to class at all. According to a 2024 study by the OECD, an intergovernmental organisation for socio-economic advice, the pandemic exacerbated student absenteeism trends internationally across various levels of education, including university. That’s what UG psychology professor Hedderik van Rijn, who’s been teaching for twenty years, has noticed in his classes too. 

‘Post-pandemic students are even less likely to attend courses. They prefer to rely much more on video recordings of lectures’, he says. 

Though Van Rijn used to upload these recordings before the pandemic, it didn’t have much effect on student attendance then. ‘Covid might have just accelerated this. But it could also be that these students are just more used to watching videos because they’ve had two years of education from home’, he explains.

That’s quite sad, he feels, even if the same content can technically still be delivered by video. ‘It’s like watching a videotape of a theatre performance. People still prefer going to the theatre. There’s something different about being in class versus watching a video lecture while dicing some onions.’

Silence in class

Van Rijn is not the only one to spot a drop in attendance. One mathematics and business lecturer also sees this trend. ‘Students choose which classes to attend and they prefer video lectures if possible. They enjoy the flexibility.’ She thinks that’s actually a change for the better, though. ‘It leaves more time to do things like Q&As and allows students to approach us individually more often.’

It’s harder to engage students

In the linguistics department, lecturers have also noticed a newfound preference for video recordings. ‘Students often request them when they’re ill or miss class, but we choose not to provide them to maintain the importance of social interaction’, says professor Roel Jonkers. He and his colleagues have not noticed a big difference in attendance post-pandemic. 

However, students do seem less social and active. ‘There’s more silence in class. It’s harder to engage them’, says assistant professor Dörte de Kok. That’s especially the case with students who graduated high school online, she thinks. ‘It’s getting better with newer generations, though. This year’s student cohort is already more engaged, maybe because they spent more time physically at school.’ 

Frank Tsiwah, assistant professor in information science, also recognises this. ‘You need to put in more effort to get students to talk in class. They just seem less motivated to engage.’

Interaction skills

But that’s not a university-wide thing. For every teacher who sees a difference in students’ behaviour, there is another one who thinks not much has changed. ‘Students are really happy to be in class’, archeology associate professor Stijn Arnoldussen says. ‘Whether they’re engaged or not, that really changes per group and per year.’

We shouldn’t be too quick to put changes down to the pandemic, Jeronimus confirms. ‘It had an effect because people got a bit more depressed and less motivated. But here we point to the pandemic, when many other things are going on’, he says. ‘A lot of students may ask themselves: “Why would I work hard? I won’t even be able to afford a home.” And that’s just one reason.’

That’s not to say the pandemic didn’t affect students, though. For many young people, being out of school and spending so much time at home meant losing important social interaction skills. ‘They missed out on sport clubs, outdoor activities, sleepovers. They started spending a lot of time on their smartphones, on social media. Now, they’re less able to make social contact.’

In part, that’s also what explains why people under thirty-five experience a greater decline in social activities, with fewer parties, fewer friends, and more time alone at home. ‘Younger people are much more on their own’, he says. ‘But then again, it’s not just the pandemic. The decrease in friendships, for example, started five years before that.’

Social media

If the pandemic accelerated the decline in social interaction, though, social media changed its norms. That’s visible in the way young men and women relate to one another, among other things.

The decrease in friendships started five years before the pandemic

‘Because of the pandemic, people went online. While many boys took to things like Reddit, got caught in the manosphere and turned conservative, many girls went to TikTok and Instagram and became more progressive.’

That led to a much larger gap than ever before in how they perceive relationships and gender roles, Jeronimus explains. ‘It became harder to approach one another and to make contact.’

Accelerated changes

So the pandemic contributed to changes in students’ social dynamics. But have the two years away from uni also left a mark on student-teacher interactions? To some extent, it has, Jeronimus thinks.

‘Sometimes, I’m getting emails from students asking me to fix something about a course, without even a preamble. “Hello” or “yo” is already quite positive for an email and even “Bert”, my name, would be great, but they’re not even doing that.’

That was bound to happen at one point, he says, but maybe ten years from now. ‘The pandemic is not the cause, but it did accelerate such changes. With the lack of social experiences, people forgot how to interact.’

Many factors

In Van Rijn’s experience, though, there have always been students who lack social skills. ‘Even before the pandemic, some wrote emails that didn’t match the academic communication style, and that hasn’t changed’, he says. ‘It’s one of those things we have to be careful about attributing to the pandemic.’

This pretty much sums it all up, Jeronimus believes. New generations of students are different. Social dynamics have shifted. But there are many factors at play, far beyond just the pandemic. ‘Gen Z students have a different upbringing, for instance. They come from smaller families, where parents invested more time and resources in their future. That allows them to mature slower.’

In practice, he says, ‘it’s as much social media, the smartphone, and everything becoming more expensive that plays a role.’

This is the final installment of UKrant’s series on the lasting effects of Covid.

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