In 1973, four hostages were taken during an unsuccessful bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden. The hostages were kept in the basement of the bank for six days until the police teargassed the robbers. The paradox was that during captivity the hostages developed a strange psychological bond with their captors. In court, they did not even want to witness against the captors. The events were broadcast all over the media. That was how people of the world were introduced to a new phenomenon called “Stockholm syndrome”. It describes a protective, unconscious bond, mutual or one-sided positive feelings that occur between the victim and the captor when they spend a long time together in isolation from the outside world. Hostages justify attachment to their captors by the desire to preserve their lives in an extreme situation. Psychologists note that when people become hostages, they change. If the isolation is especially long, the changes are irreversible. The initial shock is replaced by adaptation and the formation of the habit of “being a hostage”. But this adaptation comes with a very high price: mental and bodily transformation. Feelings and experiences begin to dull. What angered at the beginning no longer bothers in any way and becomes a part of the everyday life and new habits of the hostages. After release from isolation, a new adaptation begins - now to a normal life. But it takes longer and is more difficult, the longer and tougher the insulation was. How to recognize victims of Stockholm Syndrome? These people justify their invaders, give a variety of arguments in their defense, try to convince others that they "do not see the whole picture and therefore cannot understand them." How to help overcome Stockholm Syndrome? Show sincere sympathy; provide examples that would show the situation as being outside the norm; offer to reflect on the state of mind; and do not press and insist on your righteousness, be patient.

 I thought of this metaphor as an illustration of a paradoxical situation, which is developing - an online-learning addiction among students, professors, and administration staff. It was very difficult to  get used to it a year ago, but has become even more difficult to get out of it. To be precise, it concerns not only TSU. People all around the world suffer from the Stockholm syndrome of distance learning and teaching, though most involved in education processes are not happy with certain aspects of online activity due to various reasons. For example, the internet connection is not good enough or time differences make it really difficult to be present online on time, and so on. Let’s try to go deep into the matter.

First of all, let’s become more aware of what kind of objective and subjective problems students face when they need to come back to campus from other regions. Many of them live in families that struggle with serious financial difficulties as the result of the economic crisis which caused job cuts during the lockdown. What was feasible for parents a year ago (paying for food and giving pocket money to their children, buying tickets for international and domestic transport, etc.) is no longer affordable today. And if one needs to pay for rented housing in another city and tuition fees at the university, then the priorities are set automatically: it is more reasonable for a child to stay home and study remotely, which is incomparably cheaper for the family budget. At the same time, there are students who during these months were able to get jobs as couriers, loaders, and call center operators in order to somehow help their parents and themselves to survive in the most difficult economic situation. 

I have seen young people listening to university lectures on cell phones right at their workplaces. For example, in the sales areas of shops or at the reception at the airport. For them coming back to campus means losing their jobs and, consequently, their sources of finance. There are families that have suffered severe losses due to the coronavirus, where grief over the loss of loved ones was combined with financial problems. A single parent needs moral support for a certain period, which can only be provided by another close person - an adult daughter or son. It is clear that in such cases, announcement about the resumption of full-time learning is also not particularly encouraging. Even students from relatively wealthy families cannot always arrive on campus on time. In some Russian regions and abroad, lockdown is still maintained. It is impossible to buy tickets right away and one has to wait up to two or three weeks. But even after reaching the campus, students can find themselves in a difficult situation if the dormitories of their universities are not properly prepared and cannot provide them with a mandatory two-week quarantine. Or there is no way to seat everyone at the required distance to each other and the teacher.

Those who have finally started their studies may face other difficulties of blended learning, when both offline and online classes may be scheduled on the same day. It means that one needs to always have a working gadget - a laptop or a smartphone - and a charger. It is also necessary to bring snacks and beverages since the catering infrastructure of many universities collapsed during the quarantine, and now time is needed to restore it.

Many professors have reasons of their own for not wanting to get back to work offline. Those over sixty-five are afraid of getting infected from symptom-free carriers, of which there are many among young people. This is an objective risk, which is one of the main reasons for introducing a blended learning mode (along with the fact that many students, for one reason or another, are forced to remain in their home regions for now). Even teachers, who do not fall into this age category, do not necessarily wish to go offline. The most common reason is understanding that a lot of time will have to be wasted on moving between home and work and running between university buildings. If in the very first months of complete online communication everyone suffered from overload and lack of time due to the need to master new digital competencies and communication formats with students and colleagues, now, after having mastered them, teachers finally have the opportunity to work on publications and study guides not only during their summer vacations. They don't want to waive this unexpected advantage.

In addition, there are also purely psychological factors - a drop in motivation and emotional burnout, as well as stable habits that some students and teachers have managed to form over a long period of remote work. For students, it is listening to lectures in bed, when one can sleep especially well under the quiet meditating voice of their professor. When asked to turn on the camera, one can say that they have a bad connection. For professors, it is conducting lectures and seminars in slippers, which influences the quality of involvement. It is not uncommon for students to complain about the distraction of teachers by phone calls or communication with family members during classes. Distance mode relaxed everyone. It is understandable, but it cannot be accepted as a “new normal”.

For universities, the massive return of students and teachers to campus before the end of the academic year is also a serious challenge. As already mentioned, it is necessary to prepare dormitories and classrooms in a special way, restore the catering infrastructure, and master completely new principles of scheduling. In general, coming back to campus will be associated with great stress for everyone. The reason is not only that everyone will have to overcome the habits formed during the lockdown, but also that we will have to re-master an absolutely unknown blended format of studying and work. In other words, we do not return to the "old life", as many still believe, but are obligated to master a new style of university life. In a certain sense, it will be much more complicated than the online format, since many more factors should be taken into account. 

It is no longer possible to maintain online-learning without the risk of destroying the higher education system to an irreversible state. During the lockdown, non-humanities universities and faculties (medical, engineering, and natural science) exhausted all the resources for redesigning curricula and schedules for theoretical classes. Who will treat us in the future if medical students continue studying human anatomy from pictures only? Who will discover new minerals if geologists have never visited the field? How will new materials and drugs be designed if chemists, biologists, and pharmacists have never held test tubes in their hands? The list of negative consequences for society is endless. On a personal level, a long stay online is also fraught with danger. This is, first of all, physical inactivity, leading to weight gain and a deterioration in the general physical and emotional state. One needs to listen to common sense, overcome Stockholm syndrome and ... start a new life.

But at the same time, one cannot do without an adaptation period, when students, teachers, and administrators will need to show increased tolerance to each other. It is clear that students will be late  at first. And not only for the earlier classes, as they lost the habit of the full-time study format. They have lost the so-called sense of time. For the same reason, teachers who live far from their place of work may come late. It was difficult to switch the attention of students from their smartphones to the topics of the classes before, now it will be even more difficult. After all, during the lockdown, they got accustomed to perceiving information only through gadgets! Teachers’ eyes will also be drawn to the laptop screens for some time, and not to students’ faces. It is a force of habit, and there is no getting away from it. The main thing is to remember that old habits can be replaced by new ones only if one wants to.

Tomsk State University is looking forward to embracing both students and teachers. The university has done a great job of preparing the entire campus accordingly. All students coming from other  regions are provided with places in dormitories and quite a comfortable stay in a two-week quarantine. Several dozen classrooms have been equipped for the blended learning format. All major anti-epidemic measures continue to be carried out as planned. We are working on restoring the public catering system. It must be admitted that, for objective reasons, it is one of the biggest problems for us today. Therefore, for a certain period (I think, not too long), students and teachers will need to take care of their own nutrition. After all, in many countries, there is no such thing as public catering in educational institutions. People out there are used to bringing food in lunchboxes. We are not used to this, so we are urgently looking for new tenants for our university canteens and cafes. After all, no one knew and could not know, in advance, the exact date of returning to campus.

Dear students and colleagues, we are looking forward to seeing you soon!

 Eduard Galazhinsky,

TSU Rector,

Acting President of the Russian Academy of Education

Translated by Snezhana Nosova