‘74% of students say Covid-19 has had a negative impact on their mental health and wellbeing’ - Student Minds shares latest report University Mental Health: Life in a Pandemic.

Today we are pleased to be sharing the findings of our insights and listening work with higher education communities throughout 2020 and 2021, in our latest report ‘University Mental Health: Life in a Pandemic’. 

At the beginning of the pandemic, back in March 2020, Student Minds began a period of listening. We gathered insights from across the higher education (HE) and health sectors in order to best understand what HE communities were experiencing and what impact the pandemic was having on mental health and wellbeing. Since then, we have built on our insights and listening work through the launch of Student Space and through our own primary research, undertaken in April-May 2021 in partnership with Alterline. Through our own research, we found: 
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• 74% of students reported that Covid-19 has had a negative impact on their mental health and wellbeing 
• 49% of students reported that the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted their financial situation
• Two thirds of students said they have ‘often felt isolated or lonely since March 2020’  
• 82% of respondents say the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively impacted their academic experience 
• 65% of respondents say they needed additional help/advice during the Covid-19 pandemic. Of these, just 19% actually got the help they needed. 

Our findings are explored throughout the report, which covers topics including (but not limited to): the Black and Minority Ethnic Experience in the last year, Women’s Safety at University, accommodation, finances, experiences of online learning, staff wellbeing, and access to support. 

Overall, the report highlights the unique, wide-ranging and unequal impacts of the pandemic on HE staff and students across the country. We’ve seen all aspects of students’ lives be disrupted, including their education, living arrangements, employment opportunities and social connectedness. Staff have also been faced with challenges such as increased workloads, the shift to remote working and adapting to a new work/life balance. 

However, despite these significant impacts, we believe that together we can find positive ways forwards. Colleagues in universities, students’ unions, schools, colleges, government, the NHS and beyond can all play a role in supporting recent, current and future university students and create HE communities which are positive environments for individuals to thrive. 

The report includes a set of policy recommendations, aimed at supporting the higher education and health sectors to move beyond the pandemic positively including: 
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• The government should provide universal and targeted financial support for students, with a minimum £500 payment for all students as well as top-up funding for those disproportionately impacted.
• Universities should co-produce approaches to pedagogy, with flexibility and sensitivity to students’ individual needs and preferences. 
• Universities and the government should put measures in place to tackle and prevent digital poverty.
• The government and universities should prioritise prevention and early intervention of mental health problems through greater funding and active cultural change.
• Universities, the government and the NHS should plan for the mental health impacts of the pandemic to outlast the pandemic itself. 
• You can find a more detailed liste of these recommendations on page 69 of the report. 

We hope that our learnings, reflections and recommendations are useful and insightful, whatever your student status or role. We wrote the report with the aim of ensuring the student voice is heard and understood, and are grateful for the interest the report has already received from colleagues across the sector. 

Read the report in full, or read a summary of our findings and recommendations: www.studentminds.org.uk/lifeinapandemic.html

To access support, visit www.studentspace.org.uk