Students claim Cambridge don’s party warning is a health risk
A CAMBRIDGE University professor who cautioned against partying has been warned by students that he risks damaging their mental health and causing “impostor syndrome”.
Prof Eugene Terentjev, who is the director of Studies in Natural Sciences at Queen’s College, wrote to first-year students to warn them of the perils of having too much of a “good time” at university.
In an email to the college’s newest intake of science undergraduates, Prof Terentjev urged science students not to be “fooled” by other students who they may see “partying around”. He said: “Be sure, none of them are physical science students – not in the years above you, that is.”
Prof Terentjev, who is the John Baldwin Fellow in Physics and a leading expert in soft condensed matter physics, told students: “You can ONLY do well (ie achieve your potential, which rightly or wrongly several people here assumed you have) if you are completely focused, and learn to enjoy the course. People who just TAKE the course, but enjoy their social life, can easily survive in many subjects – but not in this one.”
The professor has sparked a fierce backlash among students, who claim that his message could be “extremely damaging” to mental well-being, adding that the professor is advocating an “unhealthy and dangerous way to live”.
The Cambridge branch of Student Minds, the UK student mental health charity, said that the email could enforce “impostor syndrome”, where students feel that they do not deserve to have a place at the university.
A spokesman for Cambridge Student Minds told The Daily Telegraph that they “condemn” the “outdated” email which suggests that students should not pursue anything other than academic work. They said such an approach “encourages students to place too much pressure on themselves at the expense of their mental health”.
In a statement published on social media, the group added that “there IS room in your life for fun, seeing friends, going out, drinking (if you wish), and your life does NOT have to be composed of work and nothing else in order to succeed”.
Micha Frazer-carroll, the welfare and rights officer at Cambridge University Students’ Union, also criticised the professor’s email, saying it sets out to “criticise the very premise of having a social life, or any sort of life, outside of study”.
She urged anyone who was negatively affected by the email to seek counselling or advice from one of the university’s mental health service providers, their tutor or a GP.
The email, which was published on Memebridge, the student Facebook group, was prompted by rumours about a rise of “drinking games”, Prof Terentjev said.
He told students that: “Physical Sciences is a VERY hard subject, which will require ALL of your attention and your FULL brain capacity (and for a large fraction of you, even that will not be quite enough).”
Prof Terentjev declined to comment to The Daily Telegraph.