The Loneliness of the Clique: A Student’s Journey from Isolation to Solidarity

When Jack Dane, a 21-year-old sports journalism student from Bebington, started his degree at the University of Liverpool, he carried the weight of expectation. But within weeks, the promise of university life crumbled into a quiet, grinding isolation. “I would just sit rotting away in bed,” he told the Liverpool Echo, describing a loneliness that left him feeling like an “outsider” in a system that often fails to see those on its margins.

Jack’s story is not unique. It is a symptom of a broader, systemic failure: the way universities, built on neoliberal models of productivity and competition, can alienate students who do not fit into predetermined social cliques. For Jack, the football society