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Any discussion about student success is really a conversation about student wellbeing .
Take the pressure down
Survey reveals the stress levels and stressors of students in 2020 .
Judyth Sachs interviewed by Wade Zaglas
As the 2021 Australian university year is in full swing , research commissioned by Studiosity revealed that 38 per cent of students were feeling stressed due to their studies at least once a day during 2020 .
More distressingly , a further 40 per cent of respondents said they were stressed about their studies every week , and only one per cent of students said they never felt anxious about studying . To discuss these findings and their deeper implications , Campus Review spoke to Professor Judyth Sachs , chief academic officer at Studiosity .
According to the annual Student Wellbeing Survey , key stressors included not having enough time to prepare for assessments and exams , subject workloads that were too high , and the inability for students to experience practicums in areas like medicine and teaching due to lockdowns .
The survey , which is now in its sixth year , is critical Sachs believes , “ as any discussion about student success is really a conversation about student wellbeing ”.
Sachs added there was value in universities following up with their 2020 graduates to see how they are coping with their sense of confidence as they enter the workforce .
CR : The research revealed that 38 per cent of students are feeling stressed every day and only 1 per cent never feel anxious . What were the main forms of stress reported ? JS : In terms of our student wellbeing survey , 28.4 per cent cited not having enough time to prepare for exams and assessments as a reason . Twenty two per cent said the course load is too much . These answers were really weighted towards 19-year-olds , so it tells us something about their expectations and perhaps about 2020 .
Students who come into university straight from school have only experienced school , where their lives are managed . They have timetables to work to . They come into university and they have to self-manage . So that transition from being highly managed , highly disciplined and highly organised , to self-managing your time , I think , is probably one of the attributions for why this happens with 19-year-olds .
But then of course that daily stress response for first years , second years and third years was also consistent for age and even enrolment status , full-time and part-time . So , I guess the data tells us a lot of things , but the data is also a little bit ambiguous about the specifics for individual students .
Can you tell us a bit about the study ? What did it entail and how many individuals were involved ? The National Wellbeing Study has been running for six years , so we ’ ve got quite a large corpus of data now . And we ’ ve got the questions right because we ’ re getting consistent types of responses . Its purpose is tied to the fact that any discussion about student success is really a conversation about student wellbeing . And that ’ s academic , social , perceptions and expectations of study , and their personal circumstances .
And this was never more apparent than in 2020 when the interconnectedness of academic life and personal life , and employment , and indeed socioeconomics of geography , all came to the forefront . Students working full-time , or part-time , mature aged students , school leavers , really gave us a different sort of snapshot of what a student experience was and what student wellbeing was like .
And I guess one of the other points that ’ s important to know is that the study itself last year had 1,021 responses from Australian university students . And we commissioned this study to an independent survey group every year as another way to stay close to student voices , to share it with the sector and to ensure that their own platform around student experience can be developed and improved .
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