The dark figure of University students that battle with feelings of loneliness and isolation is creeping up at a concerning rate and parents are beginning to question why?
University is commonly associated with being the most social period of a young person’s life. So, the question is why are so many students struggling quietly, alone? It’s a Wednesday evening in your first term of university as a young adult. All of your flatmates are nowhere in sight, either out or also in isolation. You are sat on your bed, scrolling through the endless snapchat and Instagram stories of people reaping the benefits of university socialisation and you begin to question why you weren’t invited. You scroll through your inactive flat group chat that fizzled out after the first week of term. Outside, you hear groups of students laughing and screaming, and yet you are alone, you don’t know anyone around you well enough to introduce yourself.
This is the darker side of university that oftentimes remains unseen and unspoken.
There is a rehearsed narrative that is sold to students when applying for higher education. Go to University and you’re guaranteed friends for life; you will find your people there. You’re even promised an entry-point into your dream industry. For many young students, this is the case though it cannot be limited to a time. Weeks, months, even years. There is a rapidly increasing number of university students facing loneliness, and not enough people are talking about it. A recent study concerning mental health, published by NPJ, found that two thirds of students (78.98%) reported ranges of moderate to severe feelings of isolation and loneliness throughout university.
To put this into perspective, this looks like almost everyone sitting in front of you in your seminar room. This looks like the majority of your flat. “In first year I cried almost every week for my first two terms, and I didn’t want to burden any of my new friends, so I just decided to keep it quiet. I didn’t even have time to consider anyone else would be going through the same feelings of loneliness.” said Annamol David, second year, biomedical science student.
“I never really considered that loneliness would be such an issue at Uni. No one mentioned anything of the sort when I was applying and I didn’t see any coverage on social media.” said second year BIMM student, Anders. This is the problem, nobody warns you.
Though there is an abundance of student loneliness cases, causation can vary. Factors like moving away put young people in a state of uncertainty as your primary support network is no longer footsteps away. As well as this, in a cost-of-living crisis, many students have shared that they simply cannot engage with the social aspect of university due to financial pressure. With many young students balancing part-time jobs, overwhelming workloads and living in a new place, loneliness is a common product of such. To combat this, Brighton University offers counselling, wellbeing workshops and buddy schemes. Though, a Student Union survey found that 82% of students had limited awareness of this. There is assistance there, but students rarely know it.