The cost of living crisis will be as bad, or worse, than the effect of the pandemic for some students, a Welsh university Vice Chancellor has warned. Ben Calvert, VC of the University of South Wales, made the comment as he gave evidence at the opening of a Senedd committee inquiry into mental health in higher education.
“We have got another crisis, which is the cost of living crisis, coming along,” Dr Calvert told members of the Children Young People and Education Committee. The committee opened its inquiry into student mental health as universities across the UK are being urged to introduce proactive measures to help prevent student suicides.
Orla Tarn, president of the NUS Wales told members how one student from Wales reported having just £100 left of their student support package until January after paying rent and bills this term. Some students used f ood banks and had only £10 a week to spend on food with money worries adding to already rising levels of mental health problems.
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Dr Calvert told the committee: “This year is the first year (since the pandemic) when things have returned to somewhere like normal. We have lots and lots of people back on our sites. It’s suddenly feeling wonderfully vibrant and busy again.
“But actually we have got other challenges as well. One of the issues for me is we are talking about the pandemic, it’s not past tense yet at all, but we have got another crisis, which is the cost of living coming along. I actually think for some of our students that will be harder, particularly where we have got populations of students who are older."
He said "the cost of living will be as hard, if not more of a challenge for" some students. He was worried that older students particularly would drop out of vital frontline healthcare degrees like nursing because they could not afford to live.
Although the student support package in Wales is more generous than those across the border, it has only gone up by 3.5% this year, far below soaring inflation, Orla Tarn said. Many students spent 60% or more of their loans and grants on rent and Wales should impose a student rent cap as had been done in Scotland, she said.
Calling for student support to be raised in line with inflation, the NUS President said: “The student support package is woefully inadequate. A student in Carmarthen told me they had just £100 left until January after paying bills and rent.”
Responding to questions directly on mental health from members of the committee Aberystwyth University VC Professor Elizabeth Treasure, said the overall youth mental health crisis and delays in help from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services adding to pressure on universities. There had been a 450% rise in the numbers of students declaring an existing mental health problem when they applied to university.
Speaking to the committee in her role as chair of Universities Wales, which represents institutions, Professor Treasure said student counselling services are stretched and called on better communication between the NHS and education providers.
The committee was told there delays with students moving between GP services in Wales and England, from area to area, or from overseas. Some of those arriving on campus this term are less used to socialising thanks to Covid lockdowns and need help with academic work after remote learning, Professor Treasure said.
“Students studying now have experienced loneliness and isolation and have, of course, also had issues with education provision being difficult in the run up to university. There may be some catching up to do - there is more general academic support to do.
“At this stage of term we are beginning to see social development is less than we have seen in previous years for the student body.”
Warning the “long tail of the pandemic” will be felt for years Professor Treasure said local and national systems to support student mental health and students are needed. But she stressed universities were not places of emergency healthcare and better communication was needed with the NHS when problems arose. Universities Wales policy advisor Sophie Douglas called for better communication: “Data sharing between health and education can be a challenge.The NHS can discharge people back (from accident and emergency) to halls where they live with five other 18 year-olds and no support in place,” she told the committee.
Orla Tarn said “students often feel like numbers to their institutions” as she called on universities to provide better, more targeted help for those suffering with their mental health. Dr Treasure said universities were committed to supporting student mental health and clear signposting of where and how those needing NHS support was needed.
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