Students who turned to the university for help because they were going through a tough time during the Covid pandemic often felt like they weren’t being heard, the Groninger Studentenbond (GSb) reports on the basis of data from the Meldpunt Welzijn.
The GSb created this hotline when last year’s December lockdown was announced. The union wanted to get a clearer overview of Groningen students’ mental health.
A total of seven hundred students participated in the study; 481 one of them were enrolled at the UG.
Overlooked
‘It’s shocking to see how many students felt overlooked, even when they had asked for help’, says Ale ten Cate with the GSb. ‘The help that educational institutes provided was insufficient, even though we knew students were doing particularly poorly during this time.’
The hotline concludes that 60 percent of students felt the UG was hard to reach. One oft-repeated complaint was from students who signed up with a student psychologist only to be turned away more than once (for instance because of a lack of room) or being placed on a wait list.
Grey area
According to Ten Cate, these accounts show how these students, who were already in a vulnerable position, were made to feel like they were all alone. ‘So many students can tell how they’re doing by how well their studies are going, which is why they turn to the university for help’, he says. ‘But when that help doesn’t manifest, they feel abandoned.’
Ten Cate knows that the extent to which universities are responsible for students’ mental health is a grey area. ‘But it’s very important for the university to acknowledge that this grey area exists and to help students. Just by providing support and a sympathetic ear, as well as helping people find their way.’
Plan on student well-being
The GSb, which presented the report to the UG’s board of directors last Thursday, argues that there are two concrete steps the university can take. First, the union would like the university to hire more student psychologists. Second, the union wants the university to work together with student organisations and the participation bodies to create a concrete plan on student well-being.
‘We want it to be a long-term plan, just like the Erasmus University in Rotterdam has’, says Ten Cate. ‘We know the university has already taken steps to help students, but they need to do something more specific. It’s time for them to ask themselves what they can improve both in the short and the long term? They should put that in a plan that they can then be held accountable for.’