They drop out of high school or take a break, then come back. They can move from course to course for years before receiving a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Are they as unorganized or lazy as many people think of them? Or losers, as they think of themselves? But according to recent research, things are not so clear cut.
They are also called «roving students» or «traveling students». They seem to roam around the student body, not putting everything on the line — a diploma or nothing. They annoy someone. Someone evokes sympathy and even envy: “People know how not to strain and calmly relate to their failures in school.”
But are they really so philosophical about failed exams and tests? Is it true that they don’t care if they learn at the same pace or not? Against the background of peers leading a hectic student life, it’s hard not to feel like a loser. They do not fit into the general concept of «Faster, Higher, Stronger» at all.
Long-term research has shown that the perpetual student phenomenon has many causes. One of them is that not everyone is close to the idea of being the best and striving for heights. Each of us needs his own, personally calculated time for training. Everyone has their own pace.
In addition to the desire to postpone everything until later, there are other experiences that accompany prolonged learning.
According to a survey conducted by the Federal Statistical Office (das Statistische Bundesamt — Destatis) in the summer semester 2018, there are 38 students in Germany who need 116 or more semesters to complete their degree. This refers to the net time of study, excluding vacations, internships.
The statistics obtained by the State Department of Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), on the other hand, give an idea of how large the number of those who need more time for education can be from the moment they enter a German university, only taking into account the university semester.
According to the analysis carried out in the winter semester 2016/2017, those who need more than 20 semesters turned out to be 74 people. This is almost 123% of all students in the region. These figures show that the topic of long-term learning is not just an exception to the rule.
In addition to the desire to procrastinate, there are other experiences that accompany prolonged learning.
It’s not laziness that’s to blame, but life?
Perhaps some simply do not complete their studies because of laziness or because it is more convenient to be a student. Then they have an excuse not to go out into the adult world with its 40-hour work week, joyless office chores. But there are other, more compelling reasons for long-term learning.
For some, education is a heavy financial burden that forces students to work. And work slows down the learning process. As a result, it turns out that they are looking for a job in order to study, but they miss classes because of it.
It can also be a psychological burden, when a student who has entered a particular university does not really know what he wants. Many students suffer from chronic stress: it is not easy to be in a race state all the time. Especially if parents are constantly reminded of what it costs them to study their son or daughter at a university.
For some, it is so difficult to «digest» that medical attention is required and they are forced to drop out of school. Often, stress, anxiety about the future, about financial stability lead to long-term depression.
Maybe the eternal student doubts the chosen path of professional realization, plans for life, the need for higher education. The philosophy of achievement seems to be pretty fed up with even the most notorious perfectionists and careerists. Maybe the «eternal student» is more reasonable than his classmates, focused on results.
Instead of breaking himself through the knee and running to the finish line at all costs, he admits that it is more important for him not to suffocate in book dust in a stuffy library and prepare for exams at night, but rather to breathe deeply somewhere on a hike with a backpack on your back.
Or maybe love intervened in the usual course of the educational process? And it is much more important to spend the weekend not at the table with textbooks, but in the arms and company of your beloved.
«What made you rich?»
What if we stop treating such students as “mental disabilities” and see little more than a series of banal academic holidays? Perhaps a classmate spent ten semesters studying philosophy that interests him, and the summer in a successful attempt to earn extra money, then spent four semesters studying law.
Officially missed time was not wasted. Just ask what it meant to him, what he did and what he learned during all these semesters. Sometimes someone who hesitates and allows himself to stop and take a break gains more life experience than someone who studied non-stop for four or six years and then was immediately thrown into the labor market like a puppy into water.
The “eternal student” managed to feel life and its possibilities and, having resumed his studies, he chose the direction and form (full-time, part-time, remote) more consciously.
Or maybe he decided that he did not need a higher education (at least for now) and it would be better to get some kind of practical specialty in college.
That is why now in Germany and other European countries it has become popular among school graduates and their parents to take a break for a year or two before their son or daughter enters a higher educational institution. Sometimes it turns out to be more profitable than participating in the race for a diploma.