Growing Student Crisis Identified With Pressure Mounting On Universities And Colleges

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Oct 05, 2023, 17:04 ET

LIVERPOOL, England, Oct. 5, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ready Education, a leading global provider of mobile student experience solutions to improve student success in higher education, released figures today highlighting a number of alarming trends within the Higher Education sector suggesting an emerging student crisis across Europe.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant disruption across the world and many lasting impacts are still affecting students with new pressures mounting. Although issues are being reported separately within the media around the globe, all of these individual matters are creating an intensifying student crisis for this year's cohort.

Mental Health Decline - Universities are experiencing a surge in student anxiety, mental breakdowns and depression. Up to 80%¹ of young people are now more likely to report symptoms of depression or anxiety.
Miscommunication - Communications are poor and students are feeling betrayed and that institutions are failing to meet expectations. When students spend on average 8-10 hours a day on their smartphones², why is there a gap?
Increasing Academic Pressure - Increasing numbers of students are reporting feeling stressed about their course or reporting difficulties in their education. Only 20% of students effectively seek professional help³.
Rising Social Isolation - The EU has seen a 400% increase in 18-25 year olds who reported feeling lonely in 2021 vs 2016⁴.
Increasing Financial Struggles - Across Europe, more students than ever before are now living below the poverty line. On average, 25% of European students experience (very) serious financial difficulties⁵.
Student Housing Crisis - New build stalls, housing and room shortages are leaving some students homeless. The average housing provision rate across European cities is currently 12.5%⁶ and with increasing student numbers is expected to worsen.

More information and statistics on these headlines here.

As a result of the number of growing areas of concern, students' well-being and their education are being adversely affected by the pressure they face and there has been a sharp rise in students dropping out. This creates a massive growth in demand for support which institutions are struggling to keep up with and in turn, is piling more pressure on already overstretched staff and student welfare budgets. Due to Ready Education's strong vision to improve student success in higher education worldwide, they have been closely monitoring all aspects of this within tertiary education and actively looking for solutions.

"Student retention rates have always been of great concern to universities and colleges and any issue that concerns students wellbeing and success is generally tackled head-on as and when it becomes a priority. This year there has been an unprecedented amount of pressure increasing within all elements of student life and this has challenged universities and colleges in how to address and what to prioritise" states Andrew Taylor (Vice President, Sales, E2AP, Ready Education)

"Support services are overwhelmed and demand has tripled, if not more over the past four years. As drop out rates increase, spending is falling per student in real terms and this could very well lead to a potential funding crisis. Higher ed leaders know they need new ways to help students succeed. But without the right data or tools they leave a lot for existing overstretched resources."

Holding conversations on how institutions can address these issues, Ready Education has partnered with leading bodies to host informative and thought-provoking webinars.
Join the conversation and share your thoughts and advice:
France: CampusMatin 17th October. Register HERE
Rest of Europe: UCISA 20th November. Register HERE

About Ready Education
Trusted by 715+ institutions to build communities and drive retention, Ready Education improves student success in higher education worldwide. The multinational organisation provides student-centric mobile apps that enable universities and colleges to offer a one-stop-shop for communications, resources, course management and finances. The total student experience solution has over a 90% adoption rate and is integral to empowering academia to craft their digital student experience.

For more information visit www.readyeducation.com/

¹ OECD, May 2021
² Times Higher Education, October 2022
³ European University Association, July 2022
⁴ European Commission, July 2021
⁵ Higher Education Students' Financial Difficulties, June 2021
⁶ Savills, October 2022