COVID-19 still has a hold over university experience
In most aspects of this country, you wouldn’t say covid still heavily impacts your day-to-day life but for university students at the university of Greenwich, Medway campus, it still does.
Student life hasn’t returned to normal, social hubs and areas all seem bleak and empty, its rare you’ll pass someone when moving from building to building, events held by the university don’t have a good turnout rate and with nothing to do on campus, those who commute in, soon commute back out as soon as their work is done.
So the idea of students being young, fun and free doesn’t apply to these students who are still struggling to make friends and socialise. Those who started university during the pandemic know no different, but staff are really starting to worry that student life here is never going to return.
Sarah, a student engagement officer, working on improving student experiences, feels she’s not doing her job properly because they aren’t really hosting large events compared to other higher education establishments but feels that having a dead campus is only a vicious circle, “it’s frustrating, I can’t hold events because students only come to campus for lectures then when they’re done they leave so if I plan things, no one is there to attend.”
A big part of the lack of buzz at the university is credited to the fact Students can’t even go to the gym on campus anymore.
The gym was closed during the height of the pandemic, the equipment was removed and has posed as a test centre but now since testing is done at home, the facility has to wait until exam season to be used by the students where they sit and take assessments.
According to a survey by ONS, 37 percent of first-year students in England at a university have symptoms of depression and anxiety. With such little social interaction for students, fear that poor mental health in this part of the university of Greenwich branch is projected to increase by the end of this academic year.
