2024 SAES – Implications for Campus Services

The annual Advance HE-HEPI Student Academic Experience Survey shows how full-time undergraduate students rate their time in higher education and their attitudes towards policy issues that impact upon them.

Although the survey focuses on teaching and learning experience, there are some key takeaways and implications for campus and commercial services:

Student Wellbeing

• Student wellbeing levels remain low, and are around half the levels for the general population (all ages) as measured by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
  
  
• Some of the ‘busier’ students are significantly more satisfied with their life and / or feel their life is worthwhile, with high contact hours and higher levels of paid employment being connected to more positive levels of wellbeing. There are students in these cohorts who are likely to need significant support and flexibility to help them make the most of their studies. However, when balanced correctly, high levels of workload and responsibility can be seen positively.
  
  
• Older students (age 26+) are significantly more likely to report better levels of wellbeing. This points towards a potential link between the stresses of university life having more of an impact among younger undergraduates. While mature students are more likely to have families of their own, the very nature of (in many cases) moving away to university at a young age has the potential to cause loneliness and relatively low levels of wellbeing.
  
  
• The highest frequencies of loneliness are not experienced by students staying in university halls. However, occasional loneliness is actually very prevalent, with students living in and around others (in halls, in shared accommodation) being quite likely to say they feel lonely once a week. Living in close proximity to others can mitigate the worst effects of loneliness, but some students still require support.

Cost of Living

• Around 5% of students have drawn on hardship funding from their institution, but this rises to 12% among non-binary students, 8% of Black students, 8% of students in their fourth or higher year, 10% of students who are estranged from family and 9% of care experienced students. Lengthy hardship fund applications that require many detailed and / or sensitive documents to be submitted may deter some students from applying and they may need support to do so.
  
  
• One significant impact of the cost-of-living crisis is the rise in part-time employment among full-time students during term time. The most popular reason for undertaking part-time work by far is to supplement students’ living costs, chosen by three-quarters of respondents.
  
  
• Less than a quarter of students who do not undertake paid employment during term time indicated they do not need the income, including a third of men but only one-sixth of women. The rest said they do need the income but that there were other reasons preventing them from working. The most common of these were concerns about the effect on their studies and being unable to find a job.
  
  
• Students domiciled in the rest of the world were significantly more likely to say they could not find a job than students from the UK or EU. This may be connected to visa restrictions on working hours, potentially narrowing the range of jobs they can do and making them less attractive to employers.
  
  

Off-campus Accommodation

• Some students raised concerns about the cost of travel to and from campus or placements from their accommodation.
  
  
• Students living off campus reported missing out on social activities due to lack of transport late at night.
  
  

Campus Infrastructure

• The report shows positive feedback around the quality of university campuses, which implies that investment in a modern and welcoming campus infrastructure is a good way for HEIs to demonstrate value.

Read the full report.