I work with students, and really feel for them. they were sold the need for the face to face experience, and have ended up being totally shafted, restricted to halls, etc. 9.5 k fees, plus 7-8k on accommodation fees, for what experience?
if universities genuinely believed in the personal experience of education, then they'd have invested more significantly in many services - counselling services, disability support, quality teaching facilities, and much more secure contracts for a large proportion of teaching staff (many of whom are on series of 9 month contracts with insufficient time for them to teach, mark, and work with students - in recent years. Instead they have underfunded these services, and they are struggling to cope. In addition, academics are having to create online modules on the fly. It's really telling too that some are clearly putting in a vast amount of effort to their teaching, whereas others, less so. And everything has to be created twice - once for online, and once for in person teaching.
the sheer volume of mental health and anxiety cases being referred to me currently is phenomenal.
i carried over 10 days annual leave from the previous year, as it simply wasn't possible to take it owing to the demand.
