'I am a loser'
One out of eight people feel lonely, and according to one researcher, many of these people are students. The Dutch newspaper Trouw interviewed student Anja Machielse, a Philosophy major at Utrecht University, who discovered in her research that many students confess: `I am a loser. I can't do it. I don't belong. I don't fit in and can't find friends.' Since 1998, Machielse researched the topic of loneliness and found the quality of loneliness is not visible from the outside. It is found on the inside of a person. She suggested universities need to work hard to keep students and student advisors need to pay attention if students make it as people. Some time ago, she says, around 25% of students left university after one year, without anyone knowing where they went. This isn't the case anymore.
