Girton Grammar student's future up in the air after 18 months of online learning

Whether it's going in and out of lockdown or having SACS and tests postponed and moved, it's understandable that students are unsure of what their future could look like.

Girton Grammar School year 12 student Angus Fraser has been one of the many who has struggled to adapt to the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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He said fortunately he had some idea of where his future career would take him, but online open days made it difficult to determine where he wanted to study.

"I knew I wanted to get into a commerce or business degree somewhere, but I'm still not sure where," he said.

"I want to do a bit of a broad course because I'm not quite sure where I want my career to go just yet.

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"I'm a visual person and I would have really benefitted from going to the university and seeing what it looked and felt like.

"But because of lockdowns, most open days are online now so it's made it really, really difficult."

According to a study conducted by Swinburne University, Angus is one of the lucky few who was able to decide what he wanted to do once he got to university.

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The study found 47 per cent of year 12 students said the pandemic had changed their views on enrolling in university in various ways.

It also said half of year 12s said the pandemic had changed their desire to enrol in university, citing concerns over finances, final marks and ATAR results.

Angus said while he hadn't changed his mind on his future, studying at home had been especially difficult for him and his peers.

"The last two years have certainly been challenging," he said.

"It's been difficult being online, but it's been the same for everyone so I guess there's still a bit of a level playing field."

He said learning from home brought a whole new world of challenges.

"I found it hard because there are so many distractions at home compared to when you're at school," Angus said.

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"At the beginning, I was okay because I could get up, get my work done and have time to do the things I enjoy in between study sessions.

"But as time went on, you start to become unmotivated and it just gets harder.

"And I'm a pretty social person, so not being about the see and hang out with my friends wasn't easy either."

He said if universities continued to deliver their courses online, he wasn't sure how he would cope.

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"If it does stay online, it's definitely going to be more difficult than school has been," Angus said.

"When you have more students studying the same thing, it's a lot less personalised.

"Universities supply as much support as they can, but it still doesn't really compare to a teacher who is teaching a class of 20.

"So it will be interesting to see what it all looks like when I get there."

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