A love letter to learning 
From UCLan students 

Many years ago, we fell in love with learning. We were seduced by knowledge, courted by logic and swept off our feet by wisdom. The relationship, over the years has had good and bad points but when we arrived at University, we arrived with a renewed love for learning. Our hope was to continue this love affair, it would take us to new heights, a marriage of self-discovery and new possibilities. 

However, this Valentine’s Day we’re fighting to keep this love for learning alive. With many studying at home, the challenge of a long-distance relationship is a strain. We’re going through the motions of learning. We force ourselves to care and see the value in every email received and thumbs-up posted on our chats. We were promised to be romanced by education and now we find ourselves stuck in a series of transactions; logging on to be loved.  

We think there’s two main things that will help: 

1. We would love for Universities to be more honest with us. This is not the experience we were promised. No one could have foreseen how this year would have panned out, but some recognition that it’s been tough will help inspire us to know what great learning should be and could be. 

2. We would love for the Government to be fairer with us as students. Progressive governments have tried to commercialise our love for learning. Put a price on passion. Please reduce our fees and replace the gap in university funding, otherwise this could continue to build resentment between us and universities, between students and learning. Allow universities to continue to foster a love for learning in students. Protect our relationship with the institution as matchmaker to our learning outcomes and ensure it is not damaged beyond repair. 

This February we want to begin to fall back in love with learning. Forget the gifts, we need commitment, honesty and a clear direction on how this will be fairer for students.