By Angelique Alberts
There is a sense of freedom and excitement buzzing through the air, as a group of first-year university students gather to discuss their hopes, dreams and goals for the year. They are ready to walk into an undiscovered terrain where they will be challenged and pushed to grow up and enter into what their high school teachers always referred to as “The real world”.
It has been three months since the doors of Rhodes University has opened its doors and in those three months, the aura of anxiety and stress amongst the first year students has increased greatly. The harrowing pressure of the workload university has placed a strain on the mental health of many first-year students.
Thandokazi Fuma, a first-year student doing Bachelors in legal theory and economics, describes the university experience as “Stressful and challenging”. She goes on to say that high school did not prepare her for university at all. “In high school teachers were more lenient with deadlines, there were no leave of absence forms to fill out if you were absent from school and missed a deadline for a project or test you would still be able to write your exams”
In 2018 an article on News 24’s parent 24 section, the article reported that in 2018 alone 1 in 4 university students in South Africa have been diagnosed with depression. This raises concern on how much high schools prepare and focus on the mental health of children before they head off to university.
“University has affected my mental health negatively” Says Ashley De Beer, A history and anthropology major first-year student “My depression has gotten worse since I have been at Rhodes University, I have been a victim of rape but all I could think of were all the assignments I had to get done, I have not processed and worked through what has happened to me, high school only prepared me for the workload.”
The university experience has been a getaway for some first-year students. They have taken the pressure of being a university student well; however, they do add that the involvement of teachers definitely played a bigger role in them getting work done, whereas lecturers are not as involved in individual people.
Abongile Obose, a student who has combined different faculties says that “The workload of university is the same as it was for me in high school, the pressure is actually much less than what I had in high school, however it was hard to adjust to not having teachers breathe down my neck and push me to do my best. With lectures, one has to make an appointment and the lecturers are not really that invested in individuals, I mean I can miss twelve lectures in a row and no lecturer is going to call me I personally into her/his office to know why I have been missing lectures”.
Many high school students do not know how difficult university is or how demanding the workload is but with that comes a new world to learn about and a way to grow as a person. However juggling the new found freedom that comes with being in university can put a strain on academics, especially for first-year students Sandile Ngqinambiduke a first-year statistics student says “The realities that I have faced both in high school and university are very different. At school I was not taught to deal with realities of the outside world, my daily life was based on only getting good grades. While at university there is pressure to obtain my degree while still trying to be a teenager and keep up with my social life” University has a lot of ups and downs and the pressure to get one’s degree while trying to find yourself is a gruelling journey. While many first-year students are still trying to adjust to being in the adult world, it does raise concern as to why high schools are not more invested in preparing students for the hardships that come with being a first-year student.
Diversity Times 