With Many Graduates Trapped In Limbo, Will There Ever Be Justice?

It goes without saying that the past year has been tough – for all of us. But one group in particular have certainly been neglected by both educational institutions and the media. This group is graduates.

Imagine this: you approach your final year of university, beaming with the prospects of your future, whether that be further education, a job, or a gap year. For students graduating in 2020 however, things were very different indeed.

Speaking with a group of recent graduates from across the country, I was able to understand and empathise with the lack of support they received from their universities, and the repercussions this had for their own prospects.

Georgina Southgate, a Creative Writing and English Literature graduate said: “Essentially they didn’t care about final year students…It only got easier when it ended and I’m grateful that I don’t have to go back.”

Georgina is not alone in this, with Kryssie, a Fine Art graduate, stating, “Trying to complete my degree from a student house bedroom online really isn’t the same.”

Most graduates I interviewed resonated with the notion that universities did not do enough. Despite living in a technological world in the twenty-first century, the transition from in-class lectures and seminars to those online was catastrophic. Speaking with Kryssie, she disclosed how her university initially cancelled their degree art show – a crucial event that all art students work towards throughout their three-year degree – and it was only after persistent pressure and the circulation of an online petition that the decision to reschedule the show was made.

The grueling last few months of their education was not the only difficulty these students had to endure, however.

“As soon as my deadlines were finished, it was absolute radio silence from the University,” said Jess Herbert, an English Literature and Creative Writing graduate from Newcastle University, anxious about future job prospects in an increasingly competitive market.

“I still cannot help but reminisce about this perfect day and the achievement I had made.”

Graduating from a degree is, in normal circumstances, an emotional rollercoaster. For many, this marks the end of their education and entry into the daunting world of work. In a pre-Coronavirus world, graduates would line up in their cap and gown waiting to receive their scroll and snap that all too perfect shot as they shake hands with whichever dignitary the university had decided to invite that year.

I remember graduating from my bachelor’s degree in 2018 – I still cannot help but reminisce about this perfect day and the achievement I had made. Unfortunately, for our recent graduates, Zoom calls and live streams were all they received.

Speaking with Olivia Pastor, she said: “Honestly it was bizarre. I remember when it was ‘graduation’, it was just an odd Zoom call with the professors and then me and my mum popped Champagne at 11am.”

Whilst I certainly wouldn’t say no to Champagne, for Olivia, an Ancient History graduate from Nottingham University, her ‘graduation’ was anticlimactic.

A Psychology graduate from Roehampton University said, “It did all feel very anticlimactic to open my degree results in my pyjamas in my kitchen.”

But the trauma didn’t stop there.

Graduates were then forced to enter the job world completely blind, many without any support from their universities whatsoever.

“I think so much effort is put on grades, but I wish someone [at university] had told me that experience was equally, if not, more important. You spend all your time in the library working on your degree and no one tells you that actually that’s only half the job.”

Speaking with Jess Herbert here, she raises a crucial, if slightly controversial, notion about the role that universities are expected to play in the lives of their own graduates. Throughout our education, an extravagant amount of pressure is placed upon students’ academic abilities. For some subjects such as Medicine or Dentistry, experience is also an essential element of the course in preparation for future employment. For most subjects however, this is not afforded.

Universities place all this focus on academic discipline and success yet fail to educate their students on the simplicities of work experience that is crucial to their entry into the world of work. As a graduate myself, I lacked the support needed for my own progression into the next stage of life, forced to spend countless months deciding my life’s fate – which, if nobody has told you already, doesn’t need to be decided at the age of 23.

Speaking to a History graduate from Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge, she said, “The job market at the moment is so needlessly cruel…with the heritage sector on its knees there are no jobs, and in other sectors there is cutthroat competition for jobs that don’t even pay well…how can you judge someone and their love for History or artefacts [from] a templated cover letter?”

It has not all been negative news, however. As we have seen, the transitions we have all had to make during this pandemic have, in many ways, been important for not only our own development but that of our nation as well.

“I think people are definitely thinking about the importance of mental health and a work/life balance,” said Harriet Fisk, an English Literature graduate from Swansea University.

“With many graduates trapped in limbo, will there ever be justice?”

We cannot predict the future. We do not know when this pandemic will end and if we will be returning to ‘normality’ anytime soon. What we do know, however, is this: graduates have been completely neglected by their universities and the government. Support was severely lacking, resulting in many graduates still unemployed or in a job unrelated to their degree.

Amie Kirby, when asked whether we will be feeling the repercussions of the pandemic for years to come said, “I think it’s going to depend on sector to sector.”