The Impacts Of Graduating During A Pandemic.

As told by the fashion grads of 2020/21.

By Emma Golley

01.25.2022

You’re in your final year of Uni, excited for the upcoming projects, work placements and catwalk shows that lie ahead- when suddenly the year you have worked so hard towards is thrown into chaos by a deadly pandemic…

In 2020, University and College students across the world found their daily lives disrupted as studying from home became the ‘new normal’. For those in their graduate year, students faced cancelled internships and graduation ceremonies during the most crucial year of study. They had to adapt to a year unlike no other as they pivoted to classes on zoom and online learning while experiencing a lack of social connection with their classmates.

For fashion students whether they study design, textiles, marketing or photography, graduation year is often the most pivotal in their life so far and gives students a chance to showcase their talents. It also tends to involve seeking internships and preparing for life after University or College. Wanting to explore the effects the pandemic had on fashion students, we asked fashion grads of 2020/21 to fill out our anonymous survey. The ultimate goal was to find out more about their personal experience of graduating in such unprecedented and turbulent times. The results were shocking…

Over 30 Fashion Students from across the globe filled out our survey, here are the results:

The Participants:

From the responses we received, the vast majority of participants studied Fashion Design at University or College. Over half of students studied in the UK, with Asia, USA and Canada also being a large percentage. Other areas of fashion study included Textiles, Marketing, Business and Styling.

When looking at which Universities & Colleges our participants had attended it was interesting to see such a variety of answers. With overwhelming synergy between the majority of responses in this survey, it became apparent that no matter what institution they studied at, or where in the world they were, most students seemed to have a lot of shared experiences during their graduation year. Universities included the infamous Parsons School of Design (NY, USA), Norwich University of the Arts (UK), Fashion Institute of Technology (NY, USA), Università San Raffaele Roma (Italy) and Bangalore University (India) to name a few.

The WFH trend…

Early on in 2020 it became apparent that all across the globe, students were facing the possibility of shifting from in-person studies to online. Of course this had its advantages and disadvantages depending on what subject you studied. But for creative subjects such as Fashion, in-person learning is often essential especially with it being such a visual and tactile subject area. Over 83% of respondents said their studies shifted to online only with just 13% being a mixture of online and in-person.

As we know, Universities and Colleges had to suddenly pivot to new ways of working in a way they never had to before. For certain areas in fashion such as marketing, business and journalism, the transition to online learning probably wasn’t quite as tough as areas like design, textiles and photography. Design classes can often include learning how to make patterns, the art of fabric manipulation and how to use an industrial sewing machine- not the easiest thing to do behind a computer screen.

When asked how well they felt their school adapted to new ways of working, 70% responded ‘Quite Well’ and 26.7% unfortunately stated that their school had not adapted well at all. There is no doubt that most Professors & Tutors tried their upmost to pivot to online learning as successfully as possible, but there are certain subjects and areas of fashion that are best taught in person, especially in graduation year.

An overwhelming percentage of students felt their learning suffered, yet their tuition fees were not reduced.

There is nothing worse than feeling that you are not getting what you paid for. Unfortunately that’s the conclusion you would naturally draw from seeing these results. Over 76% of graduate fashion students felt their learning suffered in 2020 because of the pandemic and new ways of working. And over 93% said their tuition fees were not reduced at all during this time. Just two respondents said they saw their fees reduced. Yearly tuition fees are not cheap, with the current yearly fee for fashion students in the UK coming out at around £9,250, while in the US that figure can jump up to a whopping $50,000 (£37,000).

Bearing in mind a lot of in-person activities, tutoring and lessons were no longer able to go ahead as planned, it’s surprising that the students weren’t compensated for that. Not to mention the disruption of creating final year collections or working on final year projects that would have been much harder to continue at home. Not everyone has access to the facilities required to complete these projects, that’s what part of your tuition fee normally goes towards- specialized equipment access. 90% of our respondents would agree as they voted ‘yes’ when asked if they felt their tuition fees should have been lowered.

We asked our survey participants to give us some additional details about their experiences, with some questions that required more detailed and personal responses. (Please note not every response could be included).

What do you wish your University or College could have done better?

Anonymous participant 1: “We could have been allowed to work distanced from others in the studio, due to the fact we were a couple months from finishing our final collections. None of our work could be done outside of Uni as it was mainly manufacturing.”

Anonymous participant 2: “Giving us alternative opportunities instead of just cancelling curriculums, so that we're not disadvantaged by the pandemic.”

Anonymous participant 3: “Pre-booked workshop slots would have been appreciated, I don’t have space at home for a practical course and rely on University workshops. When I lost these, it became detrimental to my creative development”

Anonymous participant 4: “I was quite angry and frustrated that the University could still charge all that money for reduced teaching time, with no access to facilities and equipment we would have normally got for our money. I think it was very unfair to charge the same fees when the course was completely different. We only had online mentoring sessions, which was good that they still did this and helped us digitally to complete the course, but at the same time I feel like I enrolled on a fashion design course and did not leave with the all skills I was expecting.”

Anonymous participant 5: “So many things.. my University really let me down and treated me like crap. When it first was happening, my University ignored it and my head tutor even promised us all that we would get everything every other year would get and encouraged us to buy fabric. I spent around £2000 on fabrics and materials and testing for my collection. All out of my own pocket and with the encouragement of my tutors (they actually wanted me to spend much more). Then when the lockdown happened I didn’t see any of that money back and now have a wardrobe full of wasted material.”

We followed up with the question:

What do you wish your University or College could have done better?

Anonymous participant 1: “A graduate fashion week show and any happy moment/celebration we would have had that would have made all the intense work we did worth it”

Anonymous participant 2: “Networking, expanding on skills and access to materials needed for projects”.

Anonymous participant 3: “Finishing and showing our final collections/that leading to vital industry contacts and possible job offers”.

Anonymous participant 4: “We missed out on sharing what we made in a real way. It was like we just posted a few pictures on IG and then graduated. There was no greater recognition from peers or family. It felt like we worked so hard towards something that was only for ourselves which in the end taught me a lot, but was difficult to adjust to at the time.”

Anonymous participant 5: “I definitely missed out on the studio atmosphere and being around my peers. We were a really small class and were all pretty close, so I think that human interaction and being around each other in real life was something I really missed out on. Sadly, we did not get to make our collections, and this was, and still is, devastating for me.”

Lastly we asked:

Since graduating, how easy or difficult has it been to find employment in the Fashion Industry?

Anonymous participant 1: “Very difficult, no internships or experience often means our applications get overlooked.”

Anonymous participant 2: “It has been tough, luckily I was able to find work with the connections that I've made throughout school, but my idea of what I would be doing post-grad changed drastically. My mentality went from "where would I like to work" to "where would even hire me right now"

Anonymous participant 3: “I find it difficult at the moment but I am finding different skills or hobbies whilst in lockdown which still relate to my career. Building up connections and developing my portfolio and CV as well whilst in lockdown has helped me feel so much more confident about my work!”

Anonymous participant 4: “10/10 difficult - have had to start a full time job to earn money in customer service to keep afloat. Whilst trying to create on the side when I have time. But I’m struggling to find a job as there is not much recruitment”

Anonymous participant 5: “It’s been difficult because a FaceTime interview is awkward. I’m more comfortable talking face to face in person”

As you have read, this was not an easy year for the fashion grads of 2020/21. It was very apparent that students from across the globe shared many of the same experiences- cancelled final collections, minimal social interaction, reduced learning and lack of internships & job opportunities. The most shocking aspect of all was that they were not compensated for this and their fees were not lowered- which begs the question, what were they paying for?

Thank you so much to those that participated, your honest responses will hopefully provide some comfort to others who went through the same shared experience.

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