ON CAMPUS
campusreview.com.au
the amount of study students are being
asked to undertake, followed by the cost
of university. Others say the topics are
particularly difficult. Also, just dealing with
more responsibility on their own.
Have students always been this stressed, or
is this a generational phenomenon?
There’s always been a certain amount of
stress. I think these results are telling us
the stress level has increased significantly.
That’s possibly due to the student cohorts
being much more diverse than they have
been historically. By diverse I mean beyond
international students and ethnicity into a
lot more students studying part-time and
online as well.
How can stress impact on education and
later career?
A modest amount of stress can actually be
quite positive if it sparks productive activity
by the student to get on with their work
and increase their level of focus. However,
beyond that, stress can become debilitating
and can negatively impact a student’s ability
to manage their priorities.
These results are telling us that there
are a few things that students are looking
for from their universities to reduce the
impact of stress. By far the biggest issue
seems to be around timetabling. The
leading response from students was that
50 per cent said they were looking for
longer periods to complete exams and
assessments, along with access to online
study support services, as well as access to
support after hours.
Another wrote: “It would be useful to
have someone or a support network to
help people study who never really learned
how to do it on their own.”
The data corresponds with a national
survey released last year by headspace and
the National Union of Students in which
70 per cent of students aged 17–25 rated
their mental health as poor, with more
than a third reporting thoughts of suicide
or self-harm.
Campus Review spoke with Larsen on
the Studiosity research findings and the
issues they raise.
Do you think universities will consider it
feasible to extend exam and assessment
completion times?
I think they will consider it. There’s
no doubt that universities take their
responsibilities in terms of student
wellbeing very seriously. There’s no doubt
they understand they have a duty of
care. Timetabling, of course, is incredibly
challenging. Universities are already doing
a lot in this space to try to reduce students’
stress and even out their workloads. That
said, it’s incredibly challenging – it’s a work
in progress.
CR: Why are students so stressed out?
ML: Over three-quarters of students say
they’re feeling stressed at least every
week, and over a quarter say they’re
feeling stressed every day. There seems
to be a variety of reasons. The first is
Apart from the students’ recommendations,
what else can universities do?
Universities have a large number of
excellent support programs in place, from
on-campus academic learning and literacy
support to peer-assisted study support
and mentoring programs. The thing that
really comes through from these results is
that those programs can be supplemented
and extended into online and after-hours
support programs. Many universities are
considering this and some are already
deeply engaged in these sorts of initiatives.
The study also indicates that some groups
are more affected by stress than others.
Can you elaborate on that?
Sure. The group that stood out to me was
students over 42 years of age. This is a
reflection of the fact that we’re seeing a lot
of mature-age students returning to study,
which I think is an incredibly positive trend.
Folks are coming back to re-skill or
do postgraduate studies, which I think is
excellent. If this is not their first time at
university, it’s certainly likely to have been
a long time since they’ve been back in
the system.
We do know that higher education has
changed substantially over the last couple
The leading response
from students was that ...
they were looking for longer
periods to complete exams
and assessments.
of decades. So I think that group really
stood out.
Also, and this was a slightly surprising
result, we saw that females struggled more
than their male counterparts, particularly
when it came to the amount of study. So
49 per cent of females versus 38 per cent
of males indicated that the amount of study
was their primary stressor.
Can you hazard a guess as to why this
might be, or are these things to explore
further at a later date?
These are matters that need more
research and investigation. We do know,
at Studiosity, that a large proportion of
the students who use our online study
platform are women rather than men,
which I think is a positive indicator that
females are more likely to seek help
when needed. I think that’s a positive
trend, but I do think that it needs some
more investigation. ■
25