‘University will shape your life but, sometimes, you meet the people who will change your life’
Writer recalls student days
It has been 40 years now. More than half a lifetime. Sometimes much more, as I know all too well. But every September, as the days begin to shorten, I find myself thinking back to the moment that changed my life. The moment I went to university.
September 11, 1982. A Saturday. My parents drove me from our home on the north coast of Northern Ireland to the ferry in Larne, away from a country still in the bloody midst of violence, then up through Galloway and Ayrshire, Musical Youth on the car radio, skirting Glasgow and onto Stirling.
There they deposited me, my few books, my bad haircut and flared trousers in a small, whitewalled cell of a room in Geddes Court, a student hall rumoured to be based on a Swedish prison (which must have been news to the architects RMJM, who later went on to work on the Scottish Parliament building and the Falkirk Wheel).
I had not long turned 19, was shy, spotty, a bit nerdy, utterly unworldly. I spent the first night locked away in that room, watching the tiny black and white TV I’d brought with me, horrified to realise BBC Scotland showed Sportscene rather than Match Of The Day. I didn’t know anything about Scottish football. Frankly, I felt sorry for myself and a little lonely.
That didn’t last. Within a few days I’d made friends who would last a lifetime. As many did before me and continue to do so in universities up and down the land. Right now there are young men and women settling into new student accommodation, self-consciously finding their feet in a new environment. I kind of envy them.
Sometimes, it seems, no one has a good word to say about students. So often the butt of jokes (before Alan Partridge became a household name, Steve Coogan made his career in the early-1990s with the character Paul Calf who hated students; a routine loved by students, of course) and sneering attacks by politicians and social
they will be on actually studying, doing their assignments, and seeing classmates and friends. That has a really significant impact on their mental health and results.”
Financial strain is also putting at risk the social aspect of university and college, particularly during formative events like freshers’ week.
It is traditionally a time where many new social connections are made, with students meeting new friends and finding groups to get involved with.
It is also where students’ associations can invite people to see what services they can access such as wellbeing assistance and financial support.
“A lot of the learning does take place outside of the classroom,” Gomersall said. “For a lot of students this will be their first time living independently and meeting completely new people. Those social interactions are absolutely critical in terms of their own personal development.
“With this cost-of-living crisis, I think a lot of students are missing out on being able to go and take part in these social opportunities and missing classes.
“It’s really worrying for so many students who will be missing out on all the elements of university and college that they have probably been really excited to be able to take part in.”
The issues are exacerbated, the union says, by shortages in places to live for students already committed to courses for the year ahead.
Last week, it emerged some students unable to find accommodation were being told by the University of Glasgow to consider deferring or even withdrawing from their studies.
“The key is quality, affordable accommodation,” Gomersall said. “It’s not a new problem. We’ve seen shortages year after year after year. With the costof-living crisis, I think that’s really starting to hit its peak.
“We’re calling on universities to commit to increasing the amount of student housing they provide on campus if they’re increasing the amount of student numbers that they’re offering places to.”
NUS Scotland also says those on the maximum support package would be left with just £20 a week to live off after paying the average rent in Scotland.
Welcoming the rent freeze, the union has also called on the Scottish Government to accelerate its pledge to bring student support up to the level of the real living wage, and to expand concessionary travel, currently in place for those under 22, to all students.
Gomersall said: “Students are in crisis right now. We need that student support package with the increased cost of living as soon as possible.”