Pandemic left students feeling ‘isolated from society’, Scottish Covid-19 inquiry told

The Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry has been told that students felt “isolated” and were under “incredible distress” during the pandemic.

Matthew Crilly, former National Union of Students of Scotland (NUSS) president said students felt as though they were being blamed as “the cause of the pandemic and the cause of the virus spreading”.

A panel of NUSS former presidents said 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.

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

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

Matthew said: “Some students did have access to laptops, and others just simply didn’t.

“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 believes that many universities were “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”.

Matthew highlighted a “breakdown of trust” between students and the universities following the “incredibly difficult” return to in-person study in September 2020 following the first wave of infection.

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According to Matthew, students felt as though they were being blamed for causing or spreading the virus after students were told to return to in-person classes, but in doing so would find themselves in “semi-official lockdowns” anytime there was an outbreak.

Students felt as though they were “being judged” for the outbreaks, “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.”.

He said outbreaks of the virus saw entire blocks of densely-populated student halls being locked down and this led to students feeling highly distressed and and “isolated from society”.

He continues: “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.

“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.”

The panel also found an “incredibly stark” financial crisis faced by many students who were unable to work in many traditional student sectors like hospitality and retail after they were shut down during lockdowns.

In addition to fewer earning opportunities, students were also locked into paying for student accommodation they were unable to use, the panel noted that until emergency legislation allowed them to waive contracts this could have cost students upwards of £1,000.

Student’s mental health also suffered, according to current NUSS president Ellie Gomersall, the pandemic brought about a wave of loneliness and isolation that exacerbated the 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 ongoing inquiry is ongoing, being held in Edinburgh.