Have you heard about the recently passed Higher Education Support Amendment Bill 2023? It aims to ensure that students have appropriate support, particularly those from underrepresented groups in higher education. For that reason, educators are putting support for students at the centre through early assessment, feedback and personalised communications.
It’s also helpful to understand how connected students feel to the university, to their disciplines, and to each other. Overcoming social isolation can help students grow into new identities and succeed at university and beyond. Below is a short re-post of contextual information on social isolation at the University of Sydney Business School.
Understanding Social Isolation
Most students experience various forms of isolation during their studies. This can be a more or less persistent feeling that impacts students’ well-being and/or their capacity to fulfil their study potential. Whether the causes are academic, environmental, socio-cultural or health-related, social isolation can be remedied at the point of crisis or as a preventative measure throughout students’ university life.
Causes of Social Isolation
At The University of Sydney Business School (USBS), the risk of social isolation is significant for its students because of the school’s large class sizes of very diverse students. Large classes are an issue because of the distance from lecturers and tutors it creates and the anonymity it engenders. Great heterogeneity in students is a challenge to establishing connections and developing a sense of community. The combination of large class sizes and increased diversity can, therefore, be central to students’ poor experiences at university.
Social isolation is a complex issue. The term is used to refer to a cause or an impact. It is synonymous with loneliness, depression, anxiety, and general feelings of being disconnected from a place or others. Social isolation can be punctual or persistent, time and space sensitive. The causes and impact of such feelings depend, among other things, on an individual’s circumstances.
Remediation
Research conducted at USBS shows that although the causes, coping strategies, and impact can become locked into a downward spiral, this is not an irreversible process. Indeed, this spiral can be interrupted by a ‘functional’ intervention of the student (i.e. self-help); or the intervention of an external party (e.g. family, a friend, or university staff). Whether a one-off or ongoing intervention, this can directly or indirectly prevent, mitigate or remedy the causes and/or the impact of social isolation.
At a university level, to remedy student social isolation, it is important to adopt a collaborative, student-centric, and holistic approach (Kahu & Nelson, 2018). We can also better engage with students at risk or experiencing social isolation at critical points in their university journey. This can be done through existing support services but also through pedagogical strategies that enhance connection and agency (Schar et al., 2016). Finally, it requires the appropriate resourcing to implement and manage academic, socio-cultural, and health support, services, and programs. We can also train staff and regularly evaluate and adjust the approaches we take.
You can read the full report in the university library repository.
Strategies to overcome isolation
Everybody at the University should engage with available Student support and development services and be aware of practical help, study advice, counselling or healthcare.
As the report mentions, teaching that is designed to promote engagement and connection helps prevent social isolation among students. Students feel more supported when they feel connected to the university, school, or discipline, interact with their peers and educators, and are actively learning. If you’d like to chat further about this, get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
Banner photo: copyright University of Sydney
About the author
Carmen is an educational designer, researcher, and writer based on Wangal land in Sydney, Australia. Lurks on twitter and LinkedIn @cjvallis.
As a former online international student, I have firsthand experience of the social isolation which can result. What I found helped were social activities built into the courses and program. Rather than treating students from underrepresented groups as an exception to what a normal student is, incorporate into the program what the students need to learn. This is not about putting tennis on the curriculum, but recognizing that students learn better in a group, and will be required to work with other people when they graduate. The skills of teamwork are central to any profession.