Give students a second 'freshers week' to help them make friends again, top psychiatrist says
Students should be given a second ‘freshers’ week’ when they return to university this summer to help them make friends again, a top psychiatrist has said.
Some undergraduates may find it difficult to socialise with peers after spending a prolonged period of time in semi-isolation, according to the president of Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Dr Adrian James said university students have been “particularly badly affected” by the pandemic and that their struggles with mental health have increased “significantly” over the past year.
During the autumn term multiple coronavirus outbreaks on campus meant that social activities were curtailed and thousands of students were forced to self-isolate in their halls of residence.
As the term went on, many universities cancelled in-person lectures in favour of online learning, leaving students largely confined to their bedrooms.
Since January, the majority of students have been told to stay at home rather than return to campus, and continue their studies remotely during the national lockdown.
Only those taking degrees in a select group of subjects - such as medicine, dentistry, veterinary sciences and social work - were told they are allowed to return to university where face-to-face lectures resumed at the start of term.
On Monday, students taking practical courses who need access to specialist facilities and equipment are allowed to go back to campus. But all other students have been told to wait until at least the end of the Easter holidays, when the Government will “review options”.
Dr James said that while some students will find it easy to get back into university life and into the habit of socialising, others will have a tougher time.
“Depending on how the pandemic has affected them, some will find it incredibly difficult,” he told The Sunday Telegraph. “They will have missed out on a lot of those helpful things that students get when they start university.
“You might need to recreate some of that - almost do a freshers week for everyone and get the whole system up and running, get the get people used to meeting with each other, linking up with each other and linking up with the support they can get at university.”
He said universities must be ready to help students meet one another by organising and facilitating social events and activities.
“Those who are not naturally very sociable and have got into a pattern of not having contact with people, and that has been enforced, and actually then suddenly moving to a situation where there is a potential to meet lots of people - I think some need very particular support,” Dr James said.
“Some students will have had a virtual experience but absolutely no experience at all of meeting people face to face.”
He went on to say that universities should set up formal “buddying” systems, where students are partnered with someone in the year above them who can help to show them the ropes.
Dr James said that university psychiatry societies have reported that students have been “sorely affected" by the disruption and that their experience of mental illness has "increased significantly”.
“They are at a formative time of their lives and they are missing out so much of the sort of things that help them grow as a person,” he said.
“They have been mucked around and throughout the whole of the pandemic they have faced a lot of uncertainty and unpredictability. We know that can have a knock on effect on their mental health."
