For a generation of high-school leavers, the COVID university life has been radically different to everything they hoped it would be.

Ms Jarrett-Glasser couldn't have foreseen the next two years being filled with four hour long zoom classes on a haphazard Wi-Fi connection, staring at a computer screen full of the blank black boxes of her peers with cameras switched off.

"All the things that come with uni life like gigs, expos and clubs - all the social aspects - I missed out on all of those," Ms Jarrett-Glasser said.

"I originally wanted to go to university to meet like-minded people doing the same degree as me: to go on exchanges together, travel to the same places. I hoped to network and figure out where I could go.

"There's been two years of nothing."

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When Ms Jarrett-Glasser graduated, she deferred, but her plans for travel were wrecked by COVID. She chose to study a Bachelor of International Relations and a Bachelor of Law at the University of Wollongong because it was the only university she had deferred for six months, instead of one year. She could start studying in August 2020, rather than waiting until 2021.

"I was stuck in Batemans Bay," she said, her gap year plans in tatters.

Many of Ms Jarrett-Glasser's friends had moved to live and study on university campuses.

"They did three weeks, and then were sent home and told 'You can't say here. We're shutting campuses down,'" Ms Jarrett-Glasser said.

"Most of them had signed six months contracts for accommodation on campus."

She said remote education had not benefited her learning experience. Technology and Wi-Fi issues meant she often struggled to participate in class discussions, and missed many of her classes.

"You can't meet people," she said. "You can't collaborate. It is hard to help each other and share information.

"It is so hard to seek teacher's help. You can't approach them physically."

Ms Jarrett-Glasser was able to visit the University of Wollongong satellite campus in Batemans Bay, although the campus is specialised in the courses it offers and, while giving Ms Jarrett-Glasser a place to study, she was unable to complete her learning there.

Ms Jarrett-Glasser has not stepped foot onto a campus in the two years she has been studying at university. For 2022, she was offered the chance to study on campus, but found her life was established in Batemans Bay, working for a local company and with local friends.

"I actually have a job and a life down here," she said. "It's kind of more convenient to stay online now."

She would like to see regional campuses - or programs similar to CUC Southern Shoalhaven - rolled out in the Eurobodalla, to make attaining university degrees more accessible for regional students.