University students, youth and opportunities – Jarrod Gilbert

Students are increasingly disengaged, says University of Canterbury sociologist Jarrod Gilbert. Photo / 123rf

THREE KEY FACTS

• University students are increasingly choosing to attend courses online rather than in person.
• 55% of millennials are not engaged at work and a further 16% are disengaged, according to a Gallup study.
• A recent US study found the three most desirable attributes of hiring managers of recent graduates were showing initiative, a positive attitude and a strong work ethic.

Dr Jarrod Gilbert is the Director of Independent Research Solutions and a sociologist at the University of Canterbury.

OPINION

Working at a university is like living in a parallel universe. Each year I’m one year older, but the first-year students remain exactly the same age. In recent years, though, the students are increasingly disengaged.

I don’t exactly know if the negative changes I’ve witnessed are because students are going to hell in a handbasket or because I’m becoming a cranky old man. And cranky old men complaining about young people is hardly new. Socrates said: “Our youth now love luxury, they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders, and they love to chatter instead of exercise.”

Frankly, I’d love to hear chatter from my students. My lecture theatres are increasingly empty. Just 35% of my students come to class regularly, including interactive tutorials that are not recorded, which make up a third of the paper. Moreover, 35% is comparatively high. Some classes I know of are near barren.

Students are choosing to engage remotely for courses that are not designed that way. Make no mistake, the learning outcomes are worse. Furthermore, because of accommodations made because of Covid, we have socialised them into thinking this is normal.

But the pandemic is not solely to blame, these issues were apparent long before then. Pressures to record lectures (which is now compulsory) and a tendency to want to protect enrolments meant many institutions bent over backwards to accommodate students, even when the behaviours were not in their learning interests.

These accommodations have created a sense of student entitlement and an unwillingness to engage, even in elementary ways. It’s not just about attending class; it’s contributing when there. So many students don’t speak in class, claiming they have anxiety. Obviously, clinical anxiety is real, but for the vast majority of people, speaking in front of others is simply stressful. That’s normal. Instead of encouraging these students to challenge themselves, we have too often told them giving up is just fine.

Fewer than 30% of millennials engaged at work – Gallup study

This is not just something I can speak to; there is data aplenty to draw on from the workplace. Gallup found that 55% of millennials, for example, are not engaged at work, and a further 16% were disengaged, meaning they were actively creating damage to the business they work for. That means less than 30% are up and at ’em. Fewer than three in 10 young people are what businesses are looking for, at best.

A recent US study found the three most desirable attributes for hiring managers of recent graduates were showing initiative, a positive attitude, and a strong work ethic. These are all soft skills, seen as desirable because they are in such short supply.

There are swathes of the internet dedicated to advice on how employers can help make their workplaces more fitting for young people, and that’s great, but I wonder if we are doing enough to prepare them for the workplace.

At least in part, educational institutions need to be in tune with the needs of employers, and I fear we are not doing enough to lift students to the standards that are required of them.

I’m a fan of discussing important issues around a work-life balance, something my students are so highly focused on. But as a university educator, my primary goal is to produce excellence. That excellence might look different for different students, but it certainly involves a commitment to learning and to some foundational basics. We are not doing enough to achieve that.

At the university, as in the workplace, there are things individuals can do to get ahead. I say to my students, and I’ll say to all students, the bar is currently so low that there is a massive opportunity for you to advance in simple ways: just be committed and enthusiastic in what you’re doing.

I’m convinced there is one trick to life and it’s this: do what’s in front of you as well as you possibly can. If you do that, then doors of opportunity will open. It’s that simple.

Yep, there is much to worry about as a young person. The planet is in crisis and houses carry the cost of castles, but there has also been no better time to stand out above your peers and create a good life – and that is entirely within your control.

Whatever else I impart in my classes, I don’t have a more important lesson to teach than that.