New article based on the USW Survey
The Uni Student Wellbeing team, led by our postdoctoral researcher Dr Angus Gilmore, has published a new open-access article in Studies in Higher Education titled Who experiences university as most challenging to mental health and wellbeing? Insights from a national survey of Australian undergraduates.
This is the first journal article arising from the Australian Research Council funded Uni Student Wellbeing Project and draws on responses from 19,057 Australian undergraduate students who completed the Uni Student Wellbeing Survey.
The study examines differences in mental health and wellbeing across different demographic groups and explores the extent to which these differences may be related to the quality of students’ university experiences. The findings suggest that LGBTQIA+ students, gender minority students, students with disability, and female-identifying students experience university as particularly challenging to their mental health and wellbeing. In contrast, the perceived supportiveness of university experiences does not differ substantially according to international student status, first-generation status, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status.
These findings provide important new evidence about which groups of students may be most affected by their university experiences and identify potential targets for institutional reform to better support student mental health and wellbeing.