Students ‘need to rebuild confidence’ after ‘fake grades’ jibes

UK universities must work to explain to students and the public the benefits of blended learning, and to rebuild the confidence of students who feel their prospects have been damaged by “fake grades”, according to the Student Futures Commission set up in the wake of the pandemic.

The commission, created by the UPP Foundation to help the sector navigate the next academic year and chaired by former Ucas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook, published its interim report on 6 September after taking oral and written evidence from students’ unions and mental health groups, university leaders and academics, as well as polling around 2,000 students.

“If the future for teaching and learning is digital, universities must sustain and improve their engagement with students and with the wider public,” says the report.

With universities under “intense pressure” from the media over online teaching, the report says they will “need to prioritise work from September with students and with parents, including through the media, to understand expectations around what is variously called ‘hybrid’ or ‘blended’ learning, and to explain clearly exactly what students will receive, rather than simply broad framing and debates about terminology”.

“Furthermore, universities would benefit from discussing openly the pedagogical benefits of their proposed models – not just the underpinning technological architecture,” it adds. “This is not a debate that the sector can duck.”

Meanwhile, students will “need support to help regain a sense of control over their university experience, and to rebuild their confidence,” says the report on another of its areas of focus.

“Overwhelmingly, students reported lacking in confidence; they feel they are entering university with ‘fake grades’ that might damage them in the future; they are unsure about the teaching on offer this year and about the threat of further periods of lockdown; they feel that they are below the standard they expected to be academically; and they have little confidence in the future employment market once they graduate,” it says.

Students will need support “to re-engage with extracurricular activities”, important to building a sense of belonging as well as to “engagement, academic outcomes and labour market outcomes”, and “to build or rebuild friendships and connections with their peers”.

The report also says there are risks “that many students will plan to go ‘twice as hard’ when term restarts in September, particularly with much of the traditional student nightlife having been closed since March 2020”, presenting a “series of additional challenges for institutions to manage – the most serious of which is a likely increase in instances of substance or alcohol abuse, and a lack of opportunity to negotiate issues of consent and relationships pre-university”.

“All this means that students are going to be under a range of increased pressures this year,” the report continues. “Mental health and well-being support has always been a vital part of student success; and universities should be ready for an increase in demand for these services once term re-starts in September.”

Ms Curnock Cook says in her foreword: “The idea that young people feel that their grades are somehow not worthy speaks to the wider sense of low confidence that students have articulated as we collected our evidence.

“Most students feel they are below where they should be academically; they are anxious about their rusty social skills, and worry about developing social and professional relationships. They are downcast about their job prospects when they graduate, with many turning to ‘panic master’s’ to postpone their entry to what they perceive to be a disastrously competitive recruitment market.”

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com