So there's this thing that I've been doing for a while.
Some people think it's really, really ridiculously important. Some people don't. Some people hate it, some people love it. Some people are incredible at it, and some people are just plain awful.
I'm talking, of course, about university.
In some ways, university is great. You get to meet a lot of people, you're constantly learning, the atmosphere is usually pretty good, and honestly, you can have a pretty swell time if you're doing it right. I've met a lot of really great people who have really enriched my life, and I couldn't be happier about that.
In saying that, there are some pretty big problems that a lot of uni students experience. Here are at least a few:
Financial Concerns
I know more than a few people who have had serious financial worries while trying to study.
It's not even just paying for the degrees, because in Australia you can usually defer the payment to HECS and pay off your debt later on, it's just the actual cost of living. The ABC wrote an article about this year, stating that two thirds of university students are living under the poverty line, and I'm not even surprised. Many of the people that I have studied with have admitted to having to choose between fuel to get to uni, and food, because they have very little money left after they've finished paying their bills. I've known people who've dropped out of their degrees because they just couldn't afford to do it anymore.
Most university degrees are between three and four years long, with some being much longer. It's hard to stay in a state of poverty for that long when you know that it doesn't have to be that way. I've been lucky with my casual job because it pays pretty well and the hours are fairly flexible. But it also took me six months to find a job when I first moved across the country for university. Unfortunately, it's a story that I've heard far too many times with my colleagues. It is not uncommon to not be able to find a job. It's not necessarily that the work isn't there, but if you have an intensive course with lots of homework, classes, tutorials, practicals, and placements, you aren't going to have a lot of time leftover for a job. Employers know this. So even though they're interested in you because you're usually over the age of eighteen and have said that you will be studying for 3+ years, it can be difficult to find a job with suitable hours for your university schedule. Especially since that schedule will change every semester.
Motivation
Here's the situation: you have classes everyday from 9am until 4pm, as soon as you finish classes you rush to your (probably low paying) casual job that you were fortunate enough to get, where you work until 10pm. After work you go home where you can finally have a shower, wash your clothes, and have dinner. You have no time to relax though, now you have to get stuck into your coursework before another full day of classes tomorrow. You finish your work at 2am, flop into bed and are instantly asleep. You wake up to the sound of your alarm, feeling like mere minutes have passed, to begin the cycle again.
You hit the snooze button instead.
That's where it begins. That snooze button. Prioritising sleeping over classes. Soon you find that you don't want to go to your classes, you can't be bothered, it's too hard.
Don't worry though, you aren't lazy (well, you might be but that is a whole different story), you're probably experiencing burnout. Burnout is basically when you're working so hard that you're constantly tired and just straight up lose interest. You've been overworking your body and your body has hit the point of no return. A lot of people experience burnout in their full time jobs, but it can hit uni students just as hard (if not harder). Because of the intense and stressful nature of the university lifestyle, a lot of students can experience extreme burnout. It can happen early in the degree or later in the degree, but to some extent, it will probably affect all uni students. When it happens, the motivation is just gone, and it's hard to compel yourself to go to classes when all you want to do is sleep and recover.
I've seen it take more than a few people. Resulting in poor attendance, poor grades, or just dropping out. It happens a lot, and at this point in time, there really isn't that much that we can do about it. You can try relaxation techniques and the like, but if you're stressing out, that'll probably just feel like you're wasting time that you could be using for other activities. The best way to reduce burnout is to try and balance uni life, work life, and social life. It isn't easy, but it needs to be done.
Overactive Social Lives
I've noticed this a fair bit around campus. Especially in students in the 18-25 year old range that live on campus. If you have school leavers, and young people who have moved out for the first time, they tend to get drunk on freedom (also alcohol). University is a very freeing experience, and is designed for independence, but if you don't know how to handle the freedom, you're in for a bad time.
I've seen students come to class in their pyjamas. I've seen them in the same clothes they wore the day before. I've seen them hungover. I've seen them drunk. I have seen them in almost every possible capacity and it usually follows this basic formula:
Start university with the intention of doing well
+ Make new friends and go out more
+ Uni work gets pushed aside and left until the last minute
= Assignments are rushed, or not handed in at all
= Failure of subjects
It's a real shame to see it happen. I understand the appeal. You want to have a good time, you want to spend time with your friends, you want to make your own decisions regardless of the consequences. But you're hurting yourself. You will have to repeat any subjects that you failed and you'll still have to pay for it. You won't have as good an understanding of the subject matter as your classmates who regularly went to class and consistently worked on assignments.
It can be especially hard for students that live on campus in dorms and such, because there are usually activities going on, or your neighbours will be doing stuff, or it'll be loud, or whatever. But you need to buckle down and say no. It's not worth failing your degree.
I'm not saying that students shouldn't go out and have fun, that would cause burnout as I mentioned above, it's just about doing things in moderation.
I guess that we can all only do our best. Some of us aren't meant to do university, and that's fine. Some of us are perfectly suited for university, and that's fine too. University can be a great place to make friends, study, and even learn about who you are and who you want to be. You just have to walk through the minefield of problems associated with tertiary education and hope that your degree and your hard work will take you to where you want to go.
Note: I am not claiming to be an expert. This post is purely based on observation. Also, it should be stated for the record that this does not necessarily apply to all university students/students may experience these things in differing quantities.
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