Recently a story came up on my Facebook newsfeed about the University of Cambridge’s ‘Defend Education’ group starting a campaign called End Week 5 Blues. It’s essentially a campaign to add a reading week to the middle of their very short (just 8 weeks!) and very intense semesters to give students a breather and time to get on top of things before starting the second half of term. Many of you will have read the heart-wrenching article that did the rounds in October of last year where a Cambridge student told her story of how the intense academic pressure of attending one of the world’s top-ranked universities lead her into a difficult state with her mental health and, eventually, to drop out altogether.
