Supports to help students cope with stress

BEREAVEMENT, moving home, divorce, illness and job- loss are often rated as our top life-style stressors – but shouldn’t starting college be in there somewhere too?

For many of the 60,000 students recently offered college places by CAO, the abrupt move from the sheltered and familiar environment of school, home and old friends will be a seismic upheaval.

Unfamiliar people, subjects and a study routine whose success hinges, not on external supervision but on self-discipline, can all cause anxiety — not to mention class sizes of up to 400 in some lecture halls.