Coping With Loneliness at University
Skye Tufts
Every year students at university experience loneliness.
More than one in four students often feel lonely when at University, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Leo Davies, a first-year student and student representative, has recalled his own brief experience with loneliness at university. He said, “As a student from England studying here, I quickly found myself in an entirely new world”. Leo suggests that for all university students, at one point or another, “loneliness is a core issue of the university experience”. Although, he does suggest that there is hope,. “With time, this gets a lot easier… there is truly a place for everyone, from any background, in the sandbox of university life. With enough perseverance, you will find the people that matter to you and you will find your place.”
Many student-led societies have been active over the last year in trying to tackle loneliness and poor well-being among students.
QUB Nightline is a student-led “active listening service as part of the Nightline Association”, where students, who are feeling lonely, can talk anonymously and confidentially. The service, which is available to students every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, between the hours of 8 pm - 2 am, is hugely beneficial to students feeling like they are alone. One anonymous user has described the service as “someone to chat to when you just need cheering up”, with another describing it as a “friendly voice, a safe space, a support system”.
In addition, QUB Love (a Uni-Truth Website) also gives students, who may be feeling lonely, a place to talk anonymously. Students can access the page and confess their feelings at any time. QUB Love’s confessional service helps students to voice their feelings and get feedback from others without fear of judgement, giving lonely students the chance to connect with others. Uni-Truth has claimed that they are used by “many student pages and undergraduate communities, from freshers to postgrads, in universities and colleges all over the world.”.
QUB Mind Your Mood, a student-led mental health campaign at Queens, is another society active in aiding the well-being of lonely students. On 18th January, the society held a social event called “Make A Bracelet, Make A Friend” for their, Wellbeing On Weekdays Event series, where students made new friends and created friendship bracelets as a token of appreciation. Mind Your Mood is aware of student well-being and has advised that students experiencing lonelinessshould “join a society”, as “they are a great way to connect with other like-minded students and make friends”.
There are over 200 Societies at Queens, with the Student’s Union website stating that “Joining a club or society at Queen's is the perfect opportunity to meet new people, keep up your interest in a passion or, even better, to find a brand new one you never knew you had!”.
There are a range of societies to join, all of which fit into the categories of Sports, Arts, Culture and Language, Media and Gaming, Academic and Career Enhancement Clubs, Politics, Debate and Discussion Clubs, or Charity Work and Environmental Clubs. Whatever a student’s interests, joining a society (or forming their own) is perfect for making friends and socialising with like-minded people: the perfect recipe for making a lonely student less lonely.
So, if you are a student who is feeling lonely, who has some spare time on your hands, why not join a society!
The full list of societies can be found at: https://www.qub.ac.uk/Study/student-life/Clubs-and-societies/
Image curtesy of Pixels, licence can be found here.
Skye Tufts is a health and lifestyle reporter for The Scoop, and a English and Sociology student at Queen’s University Belfast.