Students protest over support services at University College Dublin

Around two hundred students and staff at UCD gathered on the university's campus today to call for urgent action from management to address the pressures that students are facing.

The Valentine’s Day themed protest, organised by UCD Students Union, addressed a range of difficulties facing students, including financial pressures as well as mental health issues.

The union said decisions being taken by the university were "significantly out of kilter with the realities facing students".

RTÉ News spoke to a number of students attending the demonstration.

Second year student Amy said that she had waited on a list for four months to see a counsellor through the college’s free service but had been unable to wait any longer. She is now paying privately for therapy, attending a trainee therapist because it is more affordable for her. She said she had no option but to do this.

Her friend Isobel has been on the college counselling waiting list for three months. "They did contact me before Christmas to say you won’t get an appointment this semester. But I haven’t been contacted since. I had the courage to apply but I’m still waiting to get started so it is frustrating. The service is amazing but they just don’t have enough funding."

Amy describes the loss and lack of preparation suffered by her peer group as a result of the pandemic: "We were just thrown in at the deep end and told, 'Ok, swim’. I didn’t have the support to learn how to adapt to going to college, having my own timetable, and being independent so of course that creates a huge burden."

Amy and Isobel are both studying psychology. As Amy speaks a wider group of friends look on and nod in agreement.

"We basically had our formative years taken away from us. I spent a year and a half at home like everybody else. I didn’t get the chance to go out to a night club for the first time, or to have a secondary school graduation, I didn’t get the chance to attend an open day in college."

She reckons it is only natural that there is a significant rise in the number of students suffering mental health issues. "It is difficult, especially when you are still mourning the loss of everything you didn’t get."

Her friend Ethan, who is also in second year psychology, agrees: "We spent so long isolated, and people still feel very isolated. It is hard to integrate when you are just thrust in here."

The concerns expressed by these students are mirrored by findings in a number of studies carried out which found that the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on the mental health and well-being of young people.

One EU study found young people had been more vulnerable to the effects of the restrictions put in place, including the stay-at-home requirements and school closures, and had been more likely than older groups to experience job loss, financial insecurity and mental health problems.

Criticising the response of UCD, its students' union said the lengthy waiting times for counselling reflected a university not willing to invest in basic student welfare requirements. "Management needs to support the staff members who work tirelessly to assist students with a coordinated scaling up of recruitment and retention of staff across all support units."

"They are starving student services," said Matthew, a first-year medical student at the college. "The student health centre doesn’t even accept medical cards, so you are paying around €30-40 just to have a phone call with a doctor."

"A university of this prestige should have the ability to take care of its students."

UCD Students Union also repeated calls for affordable, cost-rental accommodation for students on the campus. It said high prices were locking out students from low and middle-income brackets.

"Prices are just way too expensive," Karina told RTÉ news. At the beginning of the academic year she spent several weeks commuting to college on a daily basis from Westmeath, because she could not find affordable accommodation. "It took too long and it was way too hard."

But other costs too are concerning Karina and her friends. "Even chicken rolls now, on campus, are like a fiver. Something needs to change".