Vortex - my very first student as a baby B2 QHI at SARTU (1989) decided he definitely didn't want SAR post Shawbury - his flying was fine over land but went to pieces inexplicably over the water. An overheard comment from one of his course mates led to the penny dropping for me - he had deliberately failed the sortie. After a firm debrief in which he was reminded that if he didn't pass SARTU, he didn't get his wings at all, suddenly he was good as gold again.
Baldeep - good post
I went through SARTU mid-90s, it had a number of problems (from a stude PoV anyway) but one not of its making was exactly what Crab said, most of the students just didn’t want to be there. There were 10 of us, one desperately wanted SAR, the rest desperately didn’t.
The desired end state was to pass, but without the dreaded SAR recommend, so there was most definitely a fair bit of not-doing-quite-as-well-as-perhaps-one-could going on.
That's for the frontenders, the crewmen were understandably far more keen.