Fewer undergraduates are taking gap years – but it doesn’t have to be that way. We need a reinvention, not a rejection, of student travel
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When a group of students who are new to university – and strangers to one another – meet in their first tutorial, it’s both exciting and a challenging social situation to navigate. For them, it’s a new kind of space. It’s an office, not a classroom – but is it more like a job or school? What do you call a tutor? Should you speak first or play it cool?
It’s my role to set the tone. I start with an icebreaker. That can be a bit cringeworthy, but it gets people talking and helps to relax the group. The one I tend to use is two truths, one lie. This involves sharing three statements about yourself, one of which is fictitious. I begin with a couple of mundane lines and then a zinger: ‘I had Marmite on toast for breakfast. I came to work on a folding bike. My last holiday was to Colombia.’ I’ve never been to Colombia – although I’d love to visit – and when revealing the lie I explain my interest in the country. I’ve set the game’s parameters and signalled that it’s fine to make bold claims without bragging. When it’s the students’ turn, some will be modest, others more revealing. Often, their statements give insight into their geographical interests or travel experiences.
I’ve been doing similar activities for a decade and a half, and one trend stands out: in the 2010s, it was commonplace for a few freshers in every group to share a statement about recent gap-year exploits – a trek to Machu Picchu, a bar job in Sydney, a ski season in Chamonix. In contrast, today it’s rare to hear about any independent travel. Are fewer young people going travelling?
My sample is small, but speaking with colleagues in my department and at other universities, there’s broad agreement that the overseas gap year is fading in popularity. I’ve begun to look at data on this, but it’s difficult to track. Deferrals to university are recorded and hover around five per cent of students, but that gives an incomplete picture – it doesn’t show whether someone stayed in the UK or went overseas. The majority of people who interrupt their studies don’t take an extended international trip. Instead, they tend to stay home to work, save for university, or consider their future options, degree choices or career plans. It’s also impossible to count people who take a gap year before entering work.
What’s easier to evidence is a clear trend in far fewer students choosing to study abroad during their degree. Study abroad is more purposeful than the gap year, but it’s also in decline. Research by Universities UK (UUK) shows a dramatic decrease – from 8.8 per cent in 2018–19 to just 3.5 per cent in 2021–22 – and it remains low. According to UUK, several factors are driving this fall: the COVID-19 pandemic and new visa requirements for European mobility post-Brexit may also be stifling gap years. Further constraints on both gap years and study abroad include the long-term weakening of the pound, rising airfares and the daunting cost of university tuition and rent – especially for those from less advantaged backgrounds.
On the positive side, the same UUK research shows that mobile students from low-income groups are more likely to achieve a first-class degree and secure professional-level jobs, and less likely to be unemployed than their stay-at-home peers. So, while the economic barriers to studying abroad may be real, the benefits are just as tangible. More importantly, any sort of sustained travel or life overseas has an immeasurable impact on expanding young people’s social and cultural horizons.
Read more articles from Andrew Brooks…
As a geographer, I find this pattern of student immobility deeply concerning. I see it as part of my professional responsibility to advocate for study abroad as widely as possible. And as for the ‘gap yah’ – yes, there have always been issues. These sojourns are often ridiculed as elitist, even colonial exercises. But the answer to those class dynamics is not to level down but to open up opportunity. People from working-class backgrounds who have benefited from international travel should speak confidently about their experiences and show that it’s possible to follow in the footsteps of the Lonely Planet gap-year pioneers of the 1970s and do ‘Southeast Asia on a shoestring’.
When there’s a platform – even a modest one such as ‘two truths, one lie’ in my office – use it to speak proudly about those adventures. And as for the colonial dimension? I’d be fully in favour of opening the UK to gap year visitors from around the world. Sharing our culture and landscapes with them would be wonderful. Meeting a Peruvian backpacker on a Welsh mountain, or having a 19-year-old Australian pull me a pint in the local pub, would bring cultural and economic benefits to our society.
I’m listening to (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis, after attending their reunion gig in Manchester. It was amazing to experience a band that so personifies a city.
