In my lifetime, first as a student then as an academic, I have seen enormous changes in Higher Education. The year that I went to university in the UK was the last year that it was free. I paid nothing for my first degree. Of course, this was not the case for my Masters or PhD. Since then, fees have increased incrementally in the UK and have been introduced in institutions across Europe. These changes mirror the high cost of higher education in the United States. 

University students have always been under pressure to achieve the best grades. However, with the steady increase in fees over the last 20 years, the pressure is even greater. Undergraduate students need to secure a degree that will ensure a well-paid graduate job so that they can start to pay back the debt accumulated through attending university. Many students find that they need to return to university to pursue graduate studies to move up to the next level professionally and/or economically. The majority of students work as well as study to try to offset expenditure on degrees or at least reduce their debt level. 

This implies a busy timetable of work and study. Further, students are also advised to participate in extra-curricula activities- sport, societies, aid work – in order to boost their CV and make them stand out and more competitive in the workplace. This places a huge demand on students to manage their energy and time effectively. Often they are not provided with the tools or support to do this. This juggling of study and other commitments can also make it difficult for both undergraduate and graduate students to see the bigger picture to be able to ask and answer the question: “what’s the point?” – “what contribution do I want to make?”

On the other side of the equation, the role of the academics teaching these students has also changed dramatically over the last 20 years. The tuition fee increase led to academics being measured by their students on their ability to deliver “student satisfaction” – rather than a deeper understanding of a subject. The introduction of the Impact Agenda in the UK in 2006 evaluates colleagues on the empirical value of their research. This measure favours scientific subjects, which produce quantifiable data. The evaluation of colleagues’ research and teaching contribution has become a way of managing resources towards financially viable departments and the reason for closing “under-performing” schools or sections. Underfunding of departments means that there are cuts in the administration budget meaning that colleagues manage timetabling, recruitment, admissions and employability as well as designing, delivering and evaluating courses and programmes. Alongside this runs the need to produce “competitive” teaching and research results in order to keep departments afloat. These challenges place huge pressure on university communities.

Mental health has become an increasingly well-understood societal challenge in the last few decades. As a result, many university campuses now have units for providing emotional support in counselling or psychotherapy for students and staff – this is also a phenomenon of the last 20 years, which echoes the emotional and mental health implications of the changes outlined above. These services are usually over-subscribed with months-long waiting lists. Often services can only offer a limited number of 4 or 6 hourly sessions per person per issue. 

It is incredible important that these services exist. Their over-burden points to the fact that they are vital to the community that they serve. However, what if, instead of treating issues of stress, burnout, anxiety, overwhelm, disempowerment, self-esteem as they arise, we can find another way of addressing these issues in order to let go of the blocks that create these outcomes? I know that coaching can respond effectively to this challenge on an individual level and for small groups.