Can student opportunities survive the Covid-19 pandemic?

Student opportunities are important

We know this. We’ve always known this, which is why we created Organised Fun - to celebrate and support impactful student opportunities.  

Recent research by The Sutton Trust did a great job confirming things we knew anecdotally, like taking part in societies developed leadership skills and that students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to take part in extra-curricular activities. 

Their research also showed (again unsurprisingly) that the Covid-19 pandemic has ‘profoundly’ impacted the student experience, reducing participation in extra-curricular activities by 19%.  

We’ve read through both reports from The Sutton Trust and picked out key findings and recommendations for student opportunities people in this blog post.

It’s not you, it’s the pandemic 

Hands up if you’re worried about the future of student opportunities in your university or college? Yes, we are too. 

There’s usually a ‘turnover’ of student opportunities every academic year. Different societies, volunteering projects and campaigns come and go based on student interest. As we move into handover season this year though, we are seeing even more clearly how the actions taken to manage the pandemic have overwhelmed everyone involved in opportunities. 

You’re not alone feeling concerned about who will come forward to run your society or club, or if you’re worrying about students not knowing or understanding how opportunities can work in person. Typically we rely on students seeing opportunities ‘in action’ to then want to get more involved.

Students’ unions and volunteering teams have approached supporting student opportunities differently during the Covid-19 pandemic. This has depended upon the rules set by the government, on the tolerance for risk from your university or college and your SU, and upon the interests of students involved in opportunities. 

We’ve been talking to students, staff and sabbatical officers across the UK about their approaches and worries for the future. No matter what approaches taken, everyone is worried about the future of student opportunities.   

It’s not too late to save the opportunities we know and love and to work on rebuilding new ones. We’ve teamed up with Wonkhe to find out more - how is it really for you and what are your worries for the future of opportunities. There’s a short survey to complete - You can answer it here.  

The findings will be shared with you and we’ll spend some time thinking about what can be done to help save student opportunities. There’s an article from Wonkhe here explaining this work from their perspective.