Student Hardship Research Articles

‘Money anxiety’: Understanding HE students' experiences of the cost‐of‐living crisis

AbstractThe ongoing cost‐of‐living crisis is causing immense stress and hardship for families, individuals and communities, with increases in utility bills, food prices and transport costs. Actors from civil society, politicians and academics have demonstrated concern as to the effect this is having at local and national levels, specifically the disproportionate impact on already marginalised and vulnerable groups. One demographic particularly affected is higher education students, however, due to the lack of support measures being aimed at this cohort, they are at significant risk of becoming overlooked and forgotten. While recent survey data has acknowledged the negative experiences of this group, there is a lack of understanding of their everyday lived realities. To address this gap, this article draws on empirical research conducted with HE students in the North‐West of England between 2022 and 2023. The study explores the diverse ways in which students navigate the crisis and the impact this has on their health and well‐being. It concludes with a call for urgent action and policy response to elevate unprecedented and devastating student hardship triggered by the cost‐of‐living crisis.

Resilience Amongst Students at a University that Promotes Entrepreneurship

Students, particularly those that are classified as disadvantaged, face many struggles in higher education. These are students from low-income backgrounds and often rely on the campus facilities to enrich their university experience and to make up for some of their disadvantage. Since the Covid-19 pandemic research in higher education has been following the trends in student life experiences and development. Most of this research suggests that Covid-19 has created new challenges for students and the university. While this is true most of the challenges were already present but only amplified by the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper argues that Covid-19 has only been a season of hard “reboot” into resilience. Qualitative data from thirteen (13) semi-structured interviews with South African university students is used to demonstrate the Covid-19's re-awakening of resilience amongst disadvantaged students. This data is also analysed to understand the effects of resilience in the broader student experience in higher education. The data shows that students have concerns about on and off-campus experiences, turbulent online learning, and limited funding as well as the livelihood strategies they have had to adopt. The findings show the lived experience of performing against all odds amongst disadvantaged students. It is also evident that while this is embraced by society and some research it normalises student hardship and campus inequities. In conclusion the blind-spots in student hardship and as exacerbated by Covid-19 are highlighted. This paper assists researchers, university management and student development officers to meet halfway the student resilient efforts in a meaningful way. In practice this research provides university entrepreneurship mentors and student development practioners with tangible student needs to consider when dealing with students amidst a crisis, but also when mentoring students to become entrepreneurs in a difficult period.

Online Education And Students’ Wellbeing During Covid-19 Pandemic

The primary purpose of this study is to analyse students' opinions on the effects of online education during the pandemic on students' well-being. The unprecedented world scenario that the students have been dealing with may delineate their academic performances and state of well-being to a great extent and subsequently make it a substantial challenge for researchers and practitioners. In addition to the prevailing adverse circumstances due to the pandemic in the educational sector, the stern measures taken by the UK government to avoid spreading the coronavirus also added to the adverse effect on HE students' well- being in England during the autumn back in 2020. It is evident that the pandemic enforced the drastic digital adjustment among Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the globe and pushed educational institutions to prioritise remote learning. For example, Oxford Business College (OBC), one of the leading independent (private) HEI in the UK was enforced all campus closures and made digital transformation a substantially more fundamental tactical precedence specifically for core learning among students. The foremost aim of the present research was to examine how online learning mode affected students' well-being at OBC and the variables contributing to students' opinions. A quantitative research design was adopted, and RStudio was used to analyse the data (N=944). The multi-nominal regression yielded significant results. It was found that online education at OBC did not impact students' well-being negatively, and variables such as gender, awareness of 'no detriment policy' and 'student hardship funds', general health, type of work, and positive measures of UK government significantly contributed to participants' opinions. In conclusion, OBC created a constructive online learning environment during the pandemic, leading students to appreciate digital education and maintain a positive sense of well-being. Furthermore, it is suggested that academic institutions should identify more relevant and interpretable underlying factors that could explain the enduring effects of the pandemic on student well-being. Keywords: Online Education, Student Well-being, COVID-19, Private Higher Education

Fundraising during a pandemic: The University of Manchester’s Student Hardship Appeal

This case study examines how The University of Manchester set about planning, launching and delivering a fundraising appeal during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic to support students facing hardship. The Student Hardship Appeal mobilised teams from across the Division of Development and Alumni Relations as well as professional services and academic colleagues throughout the university. The appeal tested and embedded a number of new approaches to traditional higher education appeals, including creating a broad and inclusive project team, developing a crossinstitution communications strategy, using a campaign approach that explicitly involved major donors, putting retainable acquisition at the heart of the appeal strategy, and implementing tailored digital stewardship, in part driven by the wider lockdown landscape. The appeal was a success, raising over £1.6m, one of the highest sums of any UK university. Many of the new approaches tested during the Student Hardship Appeal have now been embedded in the division’s day-to-day fundraising activity.

Social work student hardship

INTRODUCTION: Student hardship in social work has become the subject of research in recent years. Social work students face particular challenges because of the financial, social and emotional demands of long, unpaid, clinical placements. APPROACH: This article reports on a literature review conducted prior to a mixed-methods study commenced in 2019. This review informed the development of a survey of social work students and recent graduates and a set of qualitative interviews that will be reported elsewhere. A further review was conducted in July 2021 to inform the analysis. FINDINGS: A recurring theme throughout much of the reviewed social work literature examined for this project has been the intensity of struggle that students face in their study. Across the reviewed literature, students, educators, and researchers suggest interventions to reduce hardship. Gaps remain in our understanding of the intersectional factors of ethnicity, gender and disability and, in particular, the impact on Aotearoa New Zealand students.

Social justice in a tertiary education context: Do we practice what we preach?

Concepts of social justice have strong historical roots, while more contemporary notions of social justice coincide with human rights, equity, fairness and facilitation of social change with lasting impact. In higher education, evident examples of social justice include widened university access facilitating a diverse student body and graduate workforce who can, in turn, contribute to a more just society. University student identity in past eras has been synonymous with social activism. Equally, social work has a mandate to uphold social justice. Yet tertiary students’ own growing material hardships appear to constitute an unacknowledged injustice. While it is understood that tertiary study may mean short-lived poverty, more recent literature suggests that many university students are suffering mounting debt, increased mental health stress and vulnerability to withdrawal. In this article, the authors ponder social justice education by calling on specific results of a 2015 survey of 2320 Australian social work students. Findings revealed that for many students a juggling act of core study requirements, paid work, family commitments and affording necessities impacted their health, wellbeing and study success. Some astute students identified a disconnect between social work’s staunch social justice agenda and its lack of acknowledgement, empathy or action regarding student hardship. The findings have implications for curricula, universities, accrediting bodies and educators who want to facilitate social justice education.

Terrorology and Methodology: A Reply to Dixit and Stump

We did not volunteer to review the first issue of Critical Studies on Terrorism. It was the editor of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism who, in the spirit of encouraging properly critical debate, i...

Overcoming student hardship at Swinburne University, Australia: an insight into the impact of equity scholarships on financially disadvantaged university students

Overcoming student hardship at Swinburne University, Australia: an insight into the impact of equity scholarships on financially disadvantaged university students

Unions lobby to alleviate rising student hardship

Unions lobby to alleviate rising student hardship

The value of ethnographic research: University students and financial hardship

This article articulates the value of ethnographic research into poverty and particularly into the issue of student hardship. The question is asked whether ‘poverty line’ models of research, which claim to establish objective and accurate measures of financial adversity, actually help in understanding the problem of student hardship. Similar questions are asked about discourses that use the language of participation and social exclusion.Consideration is given to the value of listening to young people talk about their experiences of studying and living without sufficient means. I refer here not only to the ethics of including ‘the subjects’ of research in the knowledge-making activity, but also to the value of the ethnographic material that is produced. This offers insights into the particular social problem which it is critical to understand in order to respond effectively. It is also material that is not available through more traditional forms of research. While the focus in this article is on university students and financial hardship, it is also arguing more generally in favour of giving priority to interpretivist tradition in research about contemporary social problems.

Hopes of increase to bursaries as review body raises student hardship

Hopes of increase to bursaries as review body raises student hardship

Sign up online to the NHS student hardship campaign

Emily Chapman may be happy with her bursary and childcare allowances (letters February 22). Good for her. But I fail to see how she can begin to compare nursing students with other degree course students.

The Independent Investigation Group on Student Hardship and Funding in Wales: Reflections from the Chair

The Independent Investigation Group on Student Hardship and Funding in Wales: Reflections from the Chair

Student hardship probe

Student hardship probe

ANS action plan to probe hardship cases.

A major RCN survey into student hardship is being launched as part of the Association of Nursing Students' new drive to win proper government funding for members on all courses.