“It could’ve been so much easier if we’d received some help to set up study groups.”
Sunniva was 19 in the autumn of 2020 when she moved from Norway to Sweden to study at the University of Uppsala. Early the same autumn, all universities in Sweden were closed as a containment measure. All education transitioned to online teaching, which lasted throughout the spring semester of 2021.
Sunnova thinks that youth’s mental health should have been prioritised more. She suggests a youth survey could have been conducted aimed at checking the students’ wellbeing at the university. Also, it should have been possible to give the students a certain degree of social life and allow them to be at the university for short periods in small groups. She believes it could have been so much easier if the students had at least received some help to set up some study groups.
As a new student studying abroad, Sunniva also felt isolated from home. In March 2020. Norway, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, and Greenland closed their borders. Iceland and Sweden continued to allow visitors to enter the country. This meant that many Nordic students for a period of one to one and a half years encountered many obstacles if they wanted to travel home to meet their family and friends.