Wellbeing Week 2024 | The importance of community

As we go into our 5th Wellbeing Week at iQ, we’ve got one thing on our minds – community. Community is a driving force behind a lot of things in life, but at uni, it can have a huge impact on your experience.  

Community is important for your mental health 

A lot of students find themselves living in a new city with people they don’t know when they move to uni. On top of a hard workload, it’s not hard to see why 39% of students say they experience a decline in their mental health after starting uni.  

Finding a sense of community and being socially connected to friends and family is so important for avoiding those feelings and supporting your mental health. Community can make you happier, fights feelings of loneliness and reduces feelings of anxiety, stress and depression. It’s easy to want to isolate yourself when you’re feeling down, but having a strong network you can rely on and that looks out for you will help you stay in the light and fight through.  

A big part of uni is the people you’ll meet 

You’ll often hear that uni’s the place where you’ll make friends for life. For a lot of us, that’s true. Uni isn’t just about the education – it's about learning about yourself, about other people and creating long lasting memories that make you smile. You can’t do that on your own. Finding a community will help you make those moments that matter and find the people that make you feel connected.  

You need people who understand what you’re going through 

A key aspect of community is shared experience. That might mean a shared love for something, a shared culture or a shared background.  

Uni can be tough. Having people that understand the experience is vital for not feeling like you’re alone. It’s a group of friends that you can vent to about exams, cousins that went to uni and know how boring lectures can be, flat mates that head to onsite events with you. These people know what you’re going through and know what you’ll need to keep you going.  

Community keeps you motivated 

When you’re in the midst of exam season or that essay just isn’t working, having a community is so important for helping you to stay on task. Your community can swoop in to hype you up, cheer you on when you’re smashing it and keep you on track to getting where you want to be.  

Networking is key for your future 

Whether you know what you want to be or not, knowing people can play a huge part in the opportunities you know about. Finding a new community at uni, especially with people that may be looking at the same industry as you or know relevant people, can be so important in getting a head start in your future career. Maybe you’ll meet someone who knows about an internship opportunity they did last summer, maybe you’ll meet someone whose dad is the owner of a think tank you’d love to work at. You never know who you’re gonna meet, and that’s exactly why you have to put yourself out there and learn how to network.  

So how can you find community? 

If you’re away from family and old friends, finding a new community can feel daunting. Our best advice? Get involved. Whether you get involved with something that interests you, or go all out and explore something new, you’ll find other people with that same passion, open to meeting other people too. 

At iQ, our events are there to help you connect. Our Clubs are there to help you connect with people you know have the same interests as you. iQ Weaver Place resident Mitali joined us at our Feel Good Summit and gave her take on how joining our Clubs helped her as an international student: 

“Coming to a new place, you might know a few people, but you really want to try to get involved, get to know the culture. So my idea was to be a part of it and have a platform where I know I can engage with people with interests in the same areas as me.”  

We run monthly events and giveaways, so it’s never too late to get involved at iQ.  

Check out iQ Clubs