Students felt ‘isolated from society’ during pandemic, inquiry told

University students felt “isolated from the rest of society” during the Covid-19 pandemic, an inquiry has heard.

Matthew Crilly, who was the National Union of Students of Scotland (NUSS) president from July 2020 to June 2022, said students also felt they were being seen as “the cause of the pandemic and the cause of the virus spreading”.

A panel of NUSS former presidents told the Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry that students faced a “domino effect” of factors affecting their studies, including the move to remote learning, financial pressure, and the isolation and loneliness of being confined to student halls.

They added that not all students were affected in the same way or to the same extent, and there was a “disproportionate” impact on those from working class backgrounds or with caring responsibilities.

The inquiry is currently focusing on the impact on education, early years learning, and the experiences of children and young people up to the age of 24.

Mr Crilly said throughout the pandemic, students “were putting in a tremendous amount of work to complete their assessments that were given to them, their coursework, and they were doing it under the most incredible circumstances”.

The panel told the inquiry that many students struggled to access their education when university buildings closed and education moved online, particularly if they had been reliant on university facilities for laptops and suitable study space.

“We heard quite challenging stories of people with whole families locked down in homes, having to find a space and a corridor and join their class on their phone because they didn’t have exclusive use of a computer, and finding it really, really challenging in that way.”

He reflected that many further and higher education institutions were simply “not prepared for any kind of meaningful increase in demand for digital infrastructure”, and the 1-200 loanable laptops even the largest universities had did not “touch the sides of what was required”.

Mr Crilly also described the “incredibly difficult” circumstances faced by students who had been told to return to in-person study in September 2020 following the first wave of the pandemic.

He said outbreaks of the virus saw entire blocks of densely-populated student halls being locked down.

“An entire accommodation block of hundreds and hundreds of students would be shut down, and there was a scramble to try and make sure that those students had access to food, they had access to the necessities that they needed to live,” he said.

“At this point we had students that were in incredible distress, and we spoke and worked with the Scottish Government to ensure that the guidance was flexible enough that if students were in a severe level of distress, that they could leave the accommodation too, but those outbreaks in accommodation were really quite incredible.”

Mr Crilly added that at the same time there had been a “breakdown of trust” in those in authority by students who felt they had been told to attend in person only to find themselves in “semi-official lockdown”.

He added that students in this position felt “isolated from the rest of society”.

He told the inquiry: “Essentially, they felt like they were being seen as the cause of the pandemic and the cause of the virus spreading.

“They felt that they were being judged because of that, despite the fact that they were told that they had to be there, and they had to arrive on campus to take part in their education.”

The panel also described the “incredibly stark” financial situation faced by many students.

They said at the start of the pandemic many students were locked into paying for student accommodation they were not able to use, noting that until emergency legislation allowed them to waive contracts this could have cost students upwards of £1,000.

They also said students lost income due to the sectors they relied on for work being closed as a result of the pandemic.

The panel also described the practical and mental health challenges of living in student halls during lockdown.

Current NUSS president Ellie Gomersall spoke of the isolation and loneliness that went with being locked down in student halls, and said the mental health impact of the pandemic exacerbated an existing “mental health crisis”.

She said: “You look at the statistics of students who are experiencing severe symptoms of depression, suicidality, suicidal ideation, things like that, but this was a really big issue pre-pandemic, too.

“Then when you add in the combination of the loneliness and isolation that comes as a result of the pandemic, that exacerbates an already severe problem.”

The inquiry, in front of Lord Brailsford, continues in Edinburgh.