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Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic / ISOBEL KING

Swansea University Author: ISOBEL KING

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of university students across the UK as they were forced to transition to remote working due to lockdown and social distancing measures. Much of the existing literature focuses on undergraduate students and ignores, or generalises to, postgraduate resear...

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Published: Swansea 2022
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Master of Research
Degree name: MSc by Research
Supervisor: Hudson, Joanne ; Stratton, Gareth
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa59981
first_indexed 2022-05-09T08:35:14Z
last_indexed 2022-05-10T03:33:13Z
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recordtype RisThesis
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spelling 2022-05-09T09:44:59.8818337 v2 59981 2022-05-09 Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic 7b843f21123743e880eebc57bee19ef4 ISOBEL KING ISOBEL KING true false 2022-05-09 The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of university students across the UK as they were forced to transition to remote working due to lockdown and social distancing measures. Much of the existing literature focuses on undergraduate students and ignores, or generalises to, postgraduate research (PGR) students, a small student population that faces distinct challenges. The pandemic’s impact on PGR students included disruption to data collection, lack of access to on-campus equipment, resources and facilities, funding uncertainty and a minimal in-person contact with academic peers and supervisors, which led to a decline in their mental health and a rise in loneliness. However, most of the available evidence comes from English universities and does not differentiate between Masters and doctoral students’ experiences. Thus, using online questionnaires and interviews, the current mixed methods thesis examined levels of depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness in 72 PGR students studying at one Welsh university, explored the challenges and experiences they faced, and their opinions of the wellbeing support provided by their university during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also compared mental health and loneliness scores between genders and Masters and doctoral students. Study results showed most PGR students were experiencing moderate depression, mild anxiety, low stress and moderate loneliness, however there were no differences between gender or course type. Students experienced an array of challenges but the negative impact of working in isolation, not being able to interact in-person with others and the University’s lack of specific support for PGR students was shared by all participants. University policymakers should tailor informal wellbeing support and communications to the needs of PGR students and review existing PGR-focused wellbeing interventions with PGR students to decide which initiative would be most effective at enabling these students to thrive in the research environment. E-Thesis Swansea Mental health, loneliness, university students, COVID-19 3 5 2022 2022-05-03 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Hudson, Joanne ; Stratton, Gareth Master of Research MSc by Research Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) 2022-05-09T09:44:59.8818337 2022-05-09T09:34:14.0509863 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Uncategorised ISOBEL KING 1 59981__24029__991064ed40014176b0325b50d59cc3e9.pdf King_Isobel_M_MSc_Research_Thesis_Final__Redacted_Signature.pdf 2022-05-09T09:44:31.7062466 Output 5204428 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: The author, Isobel M. King, 2022. true eng
title Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic
spellingShingle Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic
ISOBEL KING
title_short Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort Mental health, loneliness and challenges of postgraduate research students during the COVID-19 pandemic
author_id_str_mv 7b843f21123743e880eebc57bee19ef4
author_id_fullname_str_mv 7b843f21123743e880eebc57bee19ef4_***_ISOBEL KING
author ISOBEL KING
author2 ISOBEL KING
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2022
institution Swansea University
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Uncategorised{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Engineering and Applied Sciences - Uncategorised
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of university students across the UK as they were forced to transition to remote working due to lockdown and social distancing measures. Much of the existing literature focuses on undergraduate students and ignores, or generalises to, postgraduate research (PGR) students, a small student population that faces distinct challenges. The pandemic’s impact on PGR students included disruption to data collection, lack of access to on-campus equipment, resources and facilities, funding uncertainty and a minimal in-person contact with academic peers and supervisors, which led to a decline in their mental health and a rise in loneliness. However, most of the available evidence comes from English universities and does not differentiate between Masters and doctoral students’ experiences. Thus, using online questionnaires and interviews, the current mixed methods thesis examined levels of depression, anxiety, stress and loneliness in 72 PGR students studying at one Welsh university, explored the challenges and experiences they faced, and their opinions of the wellbeing support provided by their university during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also compared mental health and loneliness scores between genders and Masters and doctoral students. Study results showed most PGR students were experiencing moderate depression, mild anxiety, low stress and moderate loneliness, however there were no differences between gender or course type. Students experienced an array of challenges but the negative impact of working in isolation, not being able to interact in-person with others and the University’s lack of specific support for PGR students was shared by all participants. University policymakers should tailor informal wellbeing support and communications to the needs of PGR students and review existing PGR-focused wellbeing interventions with PGR students to decide which initiative would be most effective at enabling these students to thrive in the research environment.
published_date 2022-05-03T05:15:23Z
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score 11.3749895

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