Stress Awareness Month
‘I was on the brink of being excluded from the institution’
A message from Jason Eyre - Senior Lecturer in Learning Development at De Montfort University
When I was an undergraduate student, way back at the end of the nineteenth century, a photograph of me appeared on the front cover of the student handbook.
This was in the old-timey black and white days of print, and the student handbook was a heavy brick comprising thousands of tissue-thin pages. It was an essential document, and in the absence of the internet and smart phones, every student at my university would lug this heavy object around with them. I recognised myself immediately. I was sitting on a bench, my head in my hands. I knew it was me, because I remember when the photograph was taken. I was in my second year and at a low ebb, having failed several of my modules, and was on the brink of being excluded from the institution for non-submission of work.
I was a terrible student, partly because I had no idea how to be a good one. I didn’t understand what was required of me, what the ‘rules of the game’ were. I didn’t know how to write an essay or plan my time. There was no support available, and I took the burden of my faltering studies entirely upon myself. After a year of stress and anxiety, I was dismissed from further study.
I was permitted to re-enrol the following year on the assurance that I would try harder, do better. I had no idea how I would do this, but I knew I wanted to try. At the start of the new academic year, I picked up the student handbook and saw myself there on the cover, on the brink of failure. I suppose in a way that helped spur me on.
I wonder how things would have turned out if I had been able to make use of the support on offer at a university like De Montfort?
There is a wealth of support available that I would have benefited from as a student, but being honest with myself, I am not sure I would have made much use of it even if it had been available way back when. I was too proud, too beholden to the idea of ‘self-reliance’ and doing things by myself, on my own. I didn’t want to talk to people, didn’t want to bother people or make a fuss. If you are like me in this regard, I urge you to reflect. Obtaining help and support is self-reliance. We are social beings, not isolated individuals, and De Montfort is a learning community. We can help one another to meet our goals and succeed in whatever way we choose to define that.
The world turns, things change. Heavy student handbooks are replaced by virtual learning environments. But at least one thing remains constant: things can get difficult as a student, and sometimes we need to step back and consider how we can keep going.
Help is on hand if we choose to seek it.
Where to seek Academic support at De Montfort University (DMU)? -