How Are Students Are Navigating the Complexities of a Post-Pandemic World?

During and after the pandemic, a lot of students were forced to learn remotely; an action which negatively affected younger students when they returned to normal education and were unused to interacting with others in an educational setting. Even university students mentioned difficulty socialising after the pandemic due to societies shutting down and remote learning still taking up much of the curriculum. A rising number of students also took a gap year to avoid remote learning, therefore postponing their learning a year and having to deal with the feeling of being behind and graduating later than expected. The pandemic also created learning gaps, with students returning to ‘normal’ education not knowing large chunks of the curriculum that they were forced to leave out during 2020. This has affected many students’ ability to catch up in time for exams, particularly if there’s less support at home. Students can’t be expected to learn to the best of their ability if it's through a screen, particularly if they require individual help. Some universities haven’t returned to ‘normal’ learning, with many lectures still remote; how much will this negatively affect students?

But the pandemic has also affected a lot of young people mentally. Remote learning often resulted in less motivation and enthusiasm for learning because of more generalised online lessons and less support for individual students. Graduates are struggling to find jobs after the pandemic, and there are less placements and internships that are still running from the after-effects of corona; this creates a scrabble amongst students to find educational opportunities before anyone else can. Studies have also found that students are worried about the economic impact that corona has had on their education; student-housing prices are higher and loans are often not enough to support students anymore. Particularly if students’ families were laid off during the pandemic or cannot financially support them, students are forced to find part-time jobs in order to fill that gap.

So despite the initial effects of the pandemic fading from society, the aftershock of such a global phenomenon is still negatively influencing graduates’ chances at employment and education today. But the question is not how much students have been impacted by corona, but more so how they will continue to be affected by it in the future. The pandemic has brought higher housing prices, less chance for placements, learning gaps, less financial support- the list goes on. With young people already struggling to find their place in the real world after graduation, it seems difficult to imagine that being “experienced on zoom” will add much to their resumes.