How Covid changed the university experience for UAE students

From studying online to isolating in hotel rooms, students faced an unprecedented time during the pandemic

University graduates have spoken out about how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted their years of study. (Pawan Singh / The National)

Students heading to university expect to spend the first year partying and making lifelong friends, while exploring a whole new world away from home.

But those who started their university degrees in 2020 had a very different experience as they had to contend with the Covid-19 pandemic.

While some students felt they had not fully experienced university life, others said they had become more resilient and independent, thanks to Covid.

Nandini Shivakumar was awarded the Dean's Award at Lancaster University. Photo: Nandini Shivakumar

Nandini Shivakumar, an Indian student from Dubai, travelled to the UK to study economics in the autumn of 2020 but had to return home in December due to the pandemic.

The 22-year-old student graduated this month and will be starting her master’s in economics at Imperial College London in August.

“In the first month or two we had only one in-person seminar," Ms Shivakumar told The National.

“It was a very big learning curve because in high school we had all in-person classes and the first year of university was online.

"We were trying to navigate through online lectures and seminars and learn how to contact professors or how to build relationships with professors.

“Then in second year, when everything was in-person, we were dealing with a different set of professors and different set of content..it was a lot to navigate through."

In December 2020, Ms Shivakumar headed back to Dubai where she studied online for four months. She then returned to the UK in April 2021, having struggled to deal with being so far away from her friends and tutors.

"I went back to university, and I can say that was probably the best decision I ever made because I could see a positive turn in my mental health just by being at the university campus and being surrounded by friends," said Ms Shivakumar.

Nandini Shivakumar, an Indian student from Dubai, said the experience taught her valuable life lessons. Photo: Nandini Shivakumar

"From travelling alone to a country, to a university where I did not know anyone and setting up a room and essentially a life made me a lot more resilient and made me a lot tougher. It has positively affected my ability to bounce back," she said.

“Everyone was having similar doubts and everyone was helping each other. It was comforting in a way that you knew you weren't alone when you were feeling overwhelmed."

Losing out on university life

Atif Ajir, a 22-year-old Indian student at the SP Jain School of Global Management in Dubai, started his studies in 2018 and had to move to online learning for a year during the pandemic.

"Although our education never stopped, we lost out on university life because of Covid-19," said Mr Ajir.

"Going to university every day was not just about attending lectures but also about catching up with friends, having group discussions about projects, working in the library, having a meal in the canteen or attending guest lectures and events in the auditoriums.

"We lost all the thrill of university life due to the pandemic. Our university life became confined to attending lectures on computers. We missed a lot of fun that we all wanted.

"The pandemic affected my mental health as everything became very uncertain. Our college life came to standstill and I wasn't sure if I was ever going to meet friends again, since they had all gone back to their home countries."

Mr Ajir said thoughts about life post-pandemic and the uncertainty of jobs made his mental health worse.

"Since the university was closed, I wasn't able to meet my friends or make new ones," he said.

"One of my biggest learnings during this period was time management."

Mr Ajir said he made sure he woke up early every day and got ready to attend online lectures, noting that the experience taught him the ethics of remote work and how to communicate with people from around the world.

Independence

Rohan Sanil, a 21-year-old Indian student in Dubai, studied animation at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia in the US.

He enrolled in university in 2020 but was only able to travel to the US in March 2021. Having graduated in June, he described the admissions process as "a mad rush".

"I definitely learnt a lot about independence and learning how to live on live on my own," Mr Sanil said.

"I'd say probably independence was the best thing I got. I learnt a lot of skills for myself, that I wouldn't have known if I had not gone to college during that time."

Because he could not go to university in the first term, he missed out on social activities and the chance to join clubs.

Although he eventually made friends, he said he did not get to "experience college” in the first year.

"I would say my biggest fear at the time was getting infected [with Covid-19]," he said.

"I was just trying to focus on my social life and trying to get a college experience.

“When I first came to the US, and we had some classes in-person and some classes (online). I had a lot of struggle dealing with that, because I had to balance both."