Fewer university and college students are positive about their educational experience amid the coronavirus crisis, figures show.
The latest National Student Survey (NSS) found that less than half of students in the UK believe their university or college took steps to support their mental wellbeing during the pandemic.
The survey, which received 332,500 responses, found that overall some 75% agreed that they were satisfied with the quality of their course – down from 83% the previous year.
It found that the pandemic had revealed issues with the availability of learning resources, with around three quarters of students (74%) agreeing that they were able to access course-specific resources – down from 87% in 2020.
READ MORE: Scottish Labour calls for plan to ensure students are vaccinated before new term
Conducted between January and April, when teaching was virtual for many students, the survey found around 72% agreed that IT facilities had supported their learning well, a drop from 83% the previous year.
The survey, which gathers the views of mainly final-year undergraduates on the quality of their course, also asked specific questions about the pandemic.
Of the 184,964 students who responded to this part of the poll, 80% said their university or college had taken sufficient steps to protect their physical safety, such as protective equipment and social distancing.
But only 42% agreed that their university or college had taken sufficient steps to support their mental wellbeing during the pandemic.
The head of the Office for Students, which conducts the NSS on behalf of the UK funding and regulatory bodies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, said this was a “concern”.
Chief executive Nicola Dandridge said: “Clearly, the circumstances last year were exceptional, but consideration should be given to what more can be done to ensure students are appropriately supported.
“As prospective and current students look to the autumn, it will be important that universities combine credible plans to restore face-to-face teaching with sensible contingency planning in the event that some restrictions need to continue.”
READ MORE: School discussion text 'promoting' NHS privatisation sparks angry response
Universities minister Michelle Donelan added: “I recognise that the past 18 months have been uniquely difficult for students, and we have set out clear expectations that the quality and quantity of tuition should be maintained.
“We have also been clear that students should be receiving good quality mental health support, and universities have had access to up to £256 million to use towards this.
“Whilst there is still more to be done, our universities have shown real innovation and resilience in adapting to this pandemic, which is shown by the majority of students rating their overall experience of their courses positively.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel