Walk through V Bar any lunchtime, and you’re guaranteed to overhear a few conversations about the stresses of student life. From everyday worries such as the 2000 word essay due in tomorrow (as yet unstarted) to the painfully stretched overdraft or a drunken argument with your new housemates in Freshers’ Week, all students undoubtedly face a good deal of pressure at university. For the unheard minority, the combination of the trivial and more serious worries, without the emotional support available from parents and childhood friends, can easily lead to the temporary or permanent abandonment of their studies.
While the drop-out rate at York is, according to the Guardian league tables, 3.5% (more than half the national average of 7.5%) the fact that any students are in a position in which leaving their studies, their friends and their life at university for good is either the only or the more attractive option, remains disturbing. However, with York comparing very favourably compared to establishments such as the UHI Millennium Institute (which has a drop-out rate of over 24%), one must ask why so many other students feel the need to leave their studies.
One explanation could be the sheer amount of people in higher education, and the Labour Party’s continued target of 50% participation in higher education; critics of their policies and those who take an arguably more elitist view can easily point to high drop-out rates as conclusive evidence of the folly of Labour’s vision.
At first glance the facts appear to show an obvious, if unfortunate story; the universities with the highest drop-out rates, including Bolton and Greenwich, are stuck right at the bottom of the league tables, with lower entry requirements and possibly less motivated students who are regrettably going to struggle more with their degrees and potentially drop out. Simple, right? Bolton University, with over a third of students leaving their studies or failing their course, is a good example of why the government has spent nearly £1 billion in the last 5 years attempting to prevent students from dropping out. But will this solve the problem?
Some people claim that many young adults are simply unsuited to university-level study, with the highest drop-out rates coming from the ‘new’ universities set up to broaden access to degrees. It could be possible that the rising drop-out rates have been caused by a desire to increase the participation of those who do not necessarily have the ability to study or were encouraged by the government to undertake a degree they had no real desire to do. Yet to jump to these conclusions is to reduce the multitude of reasons students have for a leave of absence or quitting their studies, to lifeless statistics and political sniping.
Financial pressures worry the vast majority of students but they tend to be pushed towards the back of the mind… until we find ourselves in the middle of an incredibly unhealthy financial situation. Alternatively, we can interpret the universities with the highest drop-out rates as being those with the highest proportion of state school students, which would include those from low income households, with families unable to offer financial support to students struggling to cope. Moreover, these universities are some of the more financially over-stretched. Bolton, with 99% of its students coming from a state school background, offer a maximum of £360 a year in bursaries compared to Oxford’s £3,225; startling considering that just under half of Oxford’s students come from private school. Shouldn’t questions be asked about the disproportionate level of funding available at different institutions rather than questioning the ability of financially constrained students?
Additionally, when I talked to students who have dropped or taken time out of our university, many of the reasons they gave for leaving focused on the emotional stresses affecting students.
Will* took a leave of absence after his first term; he told me: “quite simply I was not enjoying the university life I had been looking forward to all of sixth form. I didn’t want to compromise on my experience, and despite having the best of friends around me and supporting me, I faced too many personal issues to really relish first year both academically and socially.”
Will maintains that the history department was excellent, offering all the support and advice he wished for, a statement that explains the very low drop-out rate within the department. However, upon returning to York, he encountered huge difficulties with the accommodation office, being denied university accommodation and offered a room in a shared house instead, with those in charge assuming that he would still enjoy a true Freshers’ experience. How the university thought it acceptable to place a student, who had already been forced to leave due to emotional issues, in a small shared house with students in second or third year, removed from the campus bubble that shapes the Freshers’ experience, is frankly mind-blowing.
Meanwhile, the university website directs students thinking of dropping out to their academic supervisor rather than to a centralised system of welfare and cohesive support. This led to a situation in which the history department felt it necessary to get directly involved and plead Will’s case with the accommodation office. If this was standard practice instead of a contingency plan, much stress could have been avoided.
Questions need to be asked about the way universities deal with students wishing to leave their studies. While it is completely understandable that a small percentage of students will choose to leave university, a drop-out rate of more than 25% is frankly unacceptable.
It may be a matter of reducing the government and secondary school’s expectation that half of school leavers attend university. Many sixth form students do feel that university is the only option open to them, and are forced into attending, where they struggle and lose interest in their degree. However, specific universities need to take responsibility for the welfare of their students, from providing adequate financial aid to making sure students are given cohesive, sympathetic and accurate information and help to those who decide that the university experience is simply not for them.
*names have been changed for privacy purposes.
I dropped out of university…
University is supposed to be the highlight of your young life. Who could fault the carefree days (and nights) of academic enlightenment, gratuitous alcohol consumption and the fantastic friends you make along the way? Some people immediately embrace this new setting and all its freedoms, others feel daunted by being thrust into a new home, with new friends and a completely new way of life. It all looks very promising on paper, yet nothing can prepare you for that feeling of complete bewilderment when you finally get there.
And yes, that feeling happens to us all at some stage in Fresher’s Week, but what happens if it doesn’t fade, like so many say it should? That’s what happened to me. I chose to go on a leave of absence after Christmas of last year because I’d fallen in love with York and didn’t want to leave it permanently, but didn’t feel like I was ready to take it all in just yet. Many people I knew had taken gap years and talked about the benefits of taking time out before starting university, and I felt that rather than soldiering on with university when I wasn’t happy, I would return home and try again the following autumn. This approach proved to be perfect for me; I’ve returned to university on my own terms and feel much better about the way things have panned out.
My advice to people feeling lost and confused in their experience of university is this: talk to your supervisor. They’re incredibly supportive and will help you out in any way they possibly can. Perhaps a leave of absence isn’t right for you; there are several options to explore and you might even find that the initial shock of university life fades over time. But if you’re unhappy, don’t suffer in silence. Your time at university is meant to be an enjoyable experience; don’t settle for anything less.
By Maria Kwok