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It’s harder for 2020 freshers to find their people

Emma Loffhagen
Emma Loffhagen

If you were lucky enough to experience university life pre-pandemic, you’ll probably recall meeting a group of people from your halls in freshers week, vowing to be each other’s Best Friends Forever (possibly also bridesmaids) and promptly never speaking again.

The idea of being locked up in sub-par university accommodation with these interim friends for the foreseeable future is more akin to a dystopian game show than the beginning of the “best years of your life”. And for this year’s freshers from minority communities there will be an added dimension of unforeseen isolation.

Many students from minority backgrounds turn to university societies to find their place and purpose in an institution which might seem unwelcoming. But 2020’s freshers don’t have this luxury — their friends have been predestined by a pandemic and handed to them in the form of an accommodation “bubble”. They are forced to try to forge connections with randomly allocated flatmates, their future once again in the hands of an algorithm.

When I first arrived at my Cambridge University halls in 2017, it was as one of a handful of black faces in what seemed to be an infinite sea of white. As a born and bred Londoner the transition was tricky but university societies allowed me to find my people and my confidence.

Universities have a society for everything, and while some of them are just a bit of fun, many are a saving grace for students who feel like they don’t quite fit the mould. Identity-based groups such as Afro-Caribbean, LGBTQ+ and religious societies offer a chance for anxious freshers to meet like-minded people and support each other. The communities built through weekly socials, club nights and cultural celebrations are often a lifeline for minority students, particularly in the exclusive atmosphere of elite universities.

Many students from minority backgrounds turn to university societies to find their place and purpose

This year, international students, students of colour and those from sexual and religious minorities are scattered across the UK’s universities, locked away and unable to meet in person. How many of us would never have met our best friends, colleagues, even spouses had we had the misfortune of being in the class of 2023?

I’m sure university societies are trying their best to virtually connect students, but the thought of trying to build life-long friendships over the awkward lag of a Zoom call would make me want to bury my head under my fresh Ikea covers and wake up in 2021.