There are many things about university which go unsaid with students. Academics write about them a lot; but the complaints, concerns and empirical and theoretical research about the university and its multiple failings do not find their way easily into student hands, hearts and minds. There are numerous examples of literature suggesting students are not in, or entering, an entirely healthy or functional environment when they sign up for their course. We may speak of the ‘good university’, but for academics studying the dysfunction involved, the good university means the university we ought to have, but don’t. There are also lies.
As Raewyn Connell states:
Every managerial university now puts out a cloud of imagery, text and sound intended to misrepresent the way things really are - (Connell, 2019, p. 131)
What ends up in student hands, hearts and minds is fog, fantasy and fairy dust.
So how are things really? Student mental health is increasingly poor (see for example Abrams, 2022); scholars have highlighted ‘anxious hyper-vigilance’ as the norm (Hall & Bowles, 2016); and suicides get mentioned far too regularly by staff, over coffee. Alas, I’m not exaggerating for dramatic effect. I’m truly shocked at the extent of the dysfunction, even if I’m not surprised. So, I took action.
