Mental Well-Being in UK Higher Education During Covid-19: Do Students Trust Universities and the Government?

Abstract

This paper draws upon the concept of recreancy to examine the mental well-being of university students during the Covid-19 pandemic. Briefly, recreancy is loss of societal trust that results when institutional actors can no longer be counted on to perform their responsibilities. Our study of mental well-being and recreancy focuses on the role of universities and government regulators within the education sector. We surveyed 600 UK students attending 161 different public higher education providers in October 2020 during a time when many UK students were isolated in their residences and engaged in online learning. We assessed student well-being using the Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (scored 7–35) and found the mean score to be 19.9 [95% confidence interval (CI) 19.6, 20.2]. This level of well-being indicates that a significant proportion of UK students face low levels of mental well-being. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis indicates that high recreancy—measured as a low trust in universities and the government—is associated with low levels of mental well-being across the student sample. While these findings are suggestive, they are also important and we suggest that government and university leaders should not only work to increase food and housing security during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also consider how to combat various sector trends that might intensify recreancy.

Worsened Financial Situation During the COVID-19 Pandemic Was Associated With Depressive Symptomatology Among University Students in Germany: Results of the COVID-19 International Student Well-Being Study

“…The financial aid that was provided by the German educational policy consisted of three components: funding under the Federal Training Assistance Act (BAföG); financial aid, allocated by student services organizations; as well as temporary, interest-free student loans from the German state owned Credit Institute for Reconstruction (KFW) ( 6 ). In addition, universities may support students by offering affordable housing, as studies identify housing insecurity as a problem for students impacting their well-being ( 42 , 43 ), which exacerbated during the pandemic ( 44 , 45 ). At the individual level, financial education has been suggested to be beneficial for students, as it increases their awareness for available services and resources, while reducing tendencies of overestimation of one's own level of competency ( 46 ).…”

Trends of Active Learning in Higher Education and Students’ Well-Being: A Literature Review

“…The investigations were conducted in seven countries: three in Spain ( Díaz-Iso et al, 2020 ; Fernández et al, 2020 ; Luque-Suárez et al, 2021 ), two in the United Kingdom ( Mayew et al, 2020 ; Defeyter et al, 2021 ), and one in Germany ( Paulus et al, 2021 ), Taiwan ( Dutta et al, 2021 ), Israel ( Martin et al, 2020 ), the United States of America ( Vatovec and Ferrer, 2019 ), and Sweden ( Bälter et al, 2018 ). Most studies included students in higher education (as it was an inclusion criterion), however, Bälter et al’s (2018) investigation included also nine teachers.…”

Efectos sociales y políticos de la Covid -19 entre los estudiantes universitarios

“…Con respecto al impacto en la salud mental de los estudiantes universitarios se han llevado a cabo distintos estudios en universidades europeas (Defeyter et al, 2021;Kohls et al, 2021;Marelli et al, 2021;Odriozola-González et al, 2020;Rodriguez-Besteiro et al, 2021) y norteamericanas (Aucejo et al, 2020;Browning et al, 2021) 2 que muestran tendencias generales del alumnado a presentar cuadros de ansiedad, síntomas depresivos o altos niveles de estrés, acompañado en ocasiones de cierto grado de desorden alimenticio o del sueño, con marcadas diferencias por género (mayor impacto para las mujeres), situación socioeconómica o laboral, ingresos (mayor impacto en las rentas más bajas) o edad (mayor impacto en los menores de 30 años), y especialmente asociados a las restricciones, concretamente al coninamiento domiciliario o la docencia online.…”