The students are back on campus – but are they? Since the resumption of what was supposed to be normal service post-Covid, university lecturers have been reporting half-empty classroom and lecture theatres.
There’s lots of plausible theories about what’s going on: rising costs pushing students to seek paid work off-campus, more students living further away from campus and dealing with expensive and patchy public transport provision, a decline in students’ mental and physical wellbeing post-pandemic with associated knocks to academic confidence.
The worry is that students’ absence from campus signals a deeper problem with their engagement with learning, and their sense of connectedness and belonging on their courses – both triggers for early withdrawal and lack of progression. The prospect of students slipping away is a serious one – both for the students’ wellbeing and future prospects, and for the universities who are held accountable for their students’ successful outcomes.
