A NUMBER of papers in academic journals show that Covid-19 has had a very significant impact on students’ mental health. Some papers say that the reports of high levels of anxiety, depression and distress have increased by 200-300 per cent over the last two years. Some studies also show a differentially greater impact on women compared to men.

I am part of a global forum of Education School Deans, and each and every one of the deans has said that the demand for counselling and psychological support services in their respective universities has gone through the roof over the last two years. The universities almost without exception have had to expand student support services as much as possible. Most are still unable to cater to the increased demand.

I found a couple of recent studies regarding Pakistani students as well and they tell the same story. My experience with students at our university as well as those from other universities across Pakistan has been the same. Covid has for a variety of reasons increased pressure on students and has taken, and is taking, a heavy toll on their mental health.

Some of the pressure can be addressed through psychological support, other pressures require pharmacological interventions and now we are seeing some signs of post trauma disorders as well.

Being a university student over the last 18-odd months has not been easy.

The sources of increased pressure are varied. Many households have experienced significant negative income and wealth shocks over this period: many have lost jobs, many businesses have been closed or the revenues they generated have been drastically reduced. Applications for financial assistance even from students who enrolled as fee-paying students at the start of their programme have increased.

Many students have fallen sick over this period, many more have seen family members fall ill. Thousands of families have had to grieve for relatives, family members and/or friends. People have been more isolated and social networks for most have been adversely impacted. Even my four-year-old daughter keeps asking ‘when will corona go away and when will I party with my friends’. For student groups I have interacted with, the majority have had multiple illnesses in the family and a significant number have had Covid-related deaths in their social circles.

Studying online has not been easy. Students have had to abruptly shift to online learning, they have had to vacate hostels, go into isolation due to lockdowns and even beyond explicit lockdowns. Online classes have been going on for almost 18 months now. The length of online interaction has made things harder for students. Until campuses were allowed to be opened this September some of the students who joined our university in the last academic year had not visited the campus even once. Sports activities and most co-curricular activities had also been stopped and are only restarting now. Being a student over the last 18-odd months has not been easy.

A student had to move back home when the first lockdowns went into effect in March 2020. With six other siblings in a three-room house, the student had difficulty in managing his online classes from home: finding a quiet corner for attending class was hard enough, finding a quiet space for study time was almost impossible. His stipend, from the university, was suspended for the period he went home. This put additional financial pressure on him. Then his father and older brother, the two people who were the bread earners for the family, lost their jobs. The family had to resort to borrowing from the larger family and family friends to cover even basic monthly expenses. At the same time, the student had to continue to study hard to do well in online classes. The resulting increase in tension, anxiety and the onset of depression was not hard to foresee.

Another student had moved to the hostel, after his admission, as a way of putting some distance between himself and his father. They could not get along with each other. Going back home was difficult for him. Again, it showed in the form of a trigger for severe depression.

There have been impacts on learning outcomes, academic processes and academic performance as well. Though there have been significant changes in how we teach in online mode even in the short 18-month period, online classes are still for most learners not as good as in-person classes. There have been impacts on academic processes too. Initially, when we were still learning about online teaching, cheating became rampant in online examinations. There has been some grade inflation too: see the intermediate results for this year. Academic performance has also been judged, in some places, on the previous year’s performance and/or without examinations. How all of this impacts learning, we will only know over time. But we can be sure that it is unlikely to result in improved learning outcomes.

Last year, the job market was bleak as well. Students who graduated had a more difficult time finding jobs of their choice than in earlier years. There is evidence, again from across many countries, that students graduating in times of recession do have difficulty getting jobs or jobs of their choice; they have lower starting salaries and their promotions are impacted for many years to come. The market has started to recover and, hopefully, the next batch will graduate in better conditions. But again, part of Covid’s impact on the employment market might persist for a number of years.

The Higher Education Commission and its provincial counterparts and universities should be aware of some of the dynamics mentioned here and, where possible, should introduce interventions that allow the impact on students, on their learning, their employment prospects and, importantly, on their mental health, to be lessened as much as possible.

The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Development and Economic Alternatives, and an associate professor of economics at Lums.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2021