Publish at October 11 2023 Updated October 11 2023
The environment changes drastically between the end of secondary school and higher education. Learners often move from a home environment where all they had to worry about was passing exams, to a much heavier workload, often away from parents with additional responsibilities. A crucial and sometimes brutal stage for young adults. All the more so since the covid pandemic that disrupted the world in 2020 complicated students' lives considerably.
They found themselves isolated, often in small apartments, having to take distance-learning courses and study without support. Although the health crisis is over, they are still feeling its effects in their reality. With inflation on the rise, many students have admitted to cutting back on food expenditure (portrait conducted by the COP1 association and IFOP in September 2023). 36% said they had skipped a meal because they didn't have enough money. Half of those surveyed still experience a strong sense of loneliness, compared with just 19% of the general French population.
Increasingly, in France as in Belgium, third places are appearing on the territory. To explain what they are, we can quote sociologist Ray Oldenburg, who sums them up as follows:
It's an intermediate place between home (first place) and work (second place), which allows informal community life to flourish.
In other words, they are informal, open spaces where people can exchange ideas and create in a convivial atmosphere. These environments are not exclusively designed for students, but some French faculties have begun to set up this type of hybrid space. Whether it's a place to meet civil society players or to work together, these sites are central to the liveliness of student life.
Since 2021, these third places have above all been a place to extricate many students from the loneliness they feel. Many have found it difficult to study in the same place where they sleep, eat and live. As a result, some opened their doors to young adults so that they could meet up with fellow students, while respecting the health regulations in force at the time.
Since then, other third places have sprung up in the heart of the establishments themselves to create environments where they can simply chat, break out of social isolation and enhance well-being. In early 2023, Campus 2 of the University of Caen Normandie inaugurated a third place called La Bavarderie. The idea is to organize the space as a modern works pace where anyone can come and discuss academic and personal issues free of charge.
As many students live in very precarious financial situations, third places can become places of solidarity to help those with difficulties in their student life. In fact, when the future Bavarderie was announced in 2021, the project was created to offer help to the poorest students. This was one of the university's three priorities:
The place thus becomes central, covering all the needs that students have but are not immune to. The idea is for them to have access to care, information, advocacy and people with whom they can talk.
The question of food is also crucial. In Clermont, the LieU'topie canteen has been in existence for almost 10 years. The idea is to offer students free vegetarian meals on Tuesdays and Thursdays at lunchtime, cooked by student volunteers using daily leftovers from local markets and market gardens. The site also offers awareness-raising components and lectures to teach students how to prepare inexpensive, local and nutritious recipes. They hope to set up processing and canning workshops in partnership with a local agricultural high school.
References
Bonnemé, Romane, and Romane Pellen. "Pour rompre l'isolement, des tiers-lieux ouvrent leurs portes aux étudiants." Le Monde.fr. Last updated: February 19, 2021. https://www.lemonde.fr/campus/article/2021/02/19/pour-rompre-l-isolement-des-tiers-lieux-ouvrent-leurs-portes-aux-etudiants_6070499_4401467.html.
Burret, Antoine. "Third places to relieve students' psychological distress." EPALE - European Commission. Last updated: March 31, 2021. https://epale.ec.europa.eu/fr/blog/des-tiers-lieux-pour-soulager-la-detresse-psychologique-des-etudiants-3eme-vague.
Duflot, Margot. "Student third places to combat isolation." France Bleu and France 3. Last updated: September 1, 2023. https://www.francebleu.fr/emissions/le-tour-de-france-des-initiatives/les-tiers-lieux-etudiants-1834309.
Dufreix, Tom. "To help poor students, Normandy's first university third place soon in Caen." Actu.fr. Last updated: September 27, 2021. https://actu.fr/normandie/caen_14118/pour-aider-les-etudiants-pauvres-le-premier-tiers-lieu-universitaire-de-normandie-bientot-a-caen_42832787.html.
Jaquemet, Gabriel. "Inflation and precariousness: one student in two limits or forgoes food purchases." Leparisien.fr. Last updated September 12, 2023. https://www.leparisien.fr/etudiant/vie-etudiante/inflation-et-precarite-1-etudiant-sur-2-se-limite-ou-renonce-a-des-achats-alimentaires-GNDDGWV7LRD6VMCL3AQGONT4DQ.php.
"La Bavarderie, a new student café on campus 2." Université De Caen Normandie. Last updated: January 12, 2023. https://www.unicaen.fr/la-bavarderie-nouveau-tiers-lieu-etudiant-sur-le-campus-2/.
"Les tiers-lieux. Phenomenon de mode ou véritable tendance sociétale?" UCLouvain. Last updated: February 13, 2023. https://uclouvain.be/fr/etudier/culture/actualites/les-tiers-lieux-phenomene-de-mode-ou-veritable-tendance-societale.html.
"LieU'topie pulls out all the stops in a major food project for students." Tikography. Last updated: May 16, 2023. https://www.tikographie.fr/2023/05/16/lieutopie-met-les-petits-plats-dans-un-grand-projet-alimentaire-pour-les-etudiants/.
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