Covid: Student left ‘exhausted and drained’ over lack of support during pandemic

Coronavirus - Tue Jan 5, 2021
Kiera Murrell, a student studying psychology at the University of Bournemouth
PA
Luke O'Reilly5 January 2021

A student has described feeling "exhausted and drained" over the lack of university support during the pandemic.

Kiera Murrell, who studies psychology at the University of Bournemouth, shared a photo of herself in tears while holding her thumb up on Twitter.

In the caption she wrote: “In case anybody wondered how it looked or felt to be a university student in a pandemic.

“I am so exhausted and drained. I have spent my afternoon crying into a Terry’s chocolate orange because I have received not a single bit of support since university moved online in March, just like everybody else on my course.”

After the post was shared thousands of times, Ms Murrell, 20, said that she hopes it will help students’ voices be heard.

“I just ended up reaching a point yesterday where I felt so deflated, I didn’t want to continue with university, something which I worked so hard for,” she said.

“I actually originally took that photo to send to friends, but I decided to share it alongside the statement to show other students they’re not alone, and there are others who aren’t coping very well under the current circumstances.

“I am so surprised on the response… I think it speaks so much volume that thousands of students can relate and understand the struggles. I’m just so glad it did get the response it did, because students’ voices are finally being heard.”

The post, which has more than 172,000 likes on Twitter, describes the difficulties of producing several assignments and preparing for upcoming exams with “no feedback” amid restrictions on face-to-face teaching.

“Please tell me how I’m supposed to improve or better my work with absolutely 0 feedback apart from a few sarcastic emails from lecturers telling us to figure it out,” the second-year student said in the post.

“All while we are expected to pay £9,250 for this course… not forgetting the thousands of pounds of rent this year.”

She said that her course would be more manageable if they had “more materials”.

“We can’t go to the libraries to get the resources we normally need,” she claimed.

“The wellbeing centres for universities need to be doing more to check on students and make sure students know what support is out there,” she added.

A spokesman for Bournemouth University said: “Throughout the pandemic, significant support has been put in place to support students and their learning.

“Messages have been sent to students on a very regular basis and a range of information and guidance is available on the BU website and student portal.

“We would encourage any student needing support to contact our AskBU service or their academic adviser.”

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