Big worry is study not cash

Students are suffering greater stress from course difficulties than from financial problems, according to a psychology lecturer.

Evelyn Monks of Glasgow Caledonian University found that the majority of students in studies she carried out had problems of anxiety, depression and mood swings, with almost 16 per cent admitting to thoughts of suicide. More than half revealed stress levels equivalent to those found among psychiatric outpatients.

At the inaugural conference on student well-being in higher education, run jointly by Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities, Ms Monks said those students who had difficulties with their course were more likely to express suicidal feelings, while the level of financial problems had little effect on emotional stress.

Ms Monks, who interviewed 250 students from Glasgow Caledonian, Strathclyde and Glasgow universities, said the stress problems were not linked to a particular type of course. Contrary to expectations, some students with massive psychological difficulties excelled themselves in the final examinations, while those with relatively low stress levels did not necessarily perform exceptionally well.

"A lot of them were so highly stressed, they were thinking of dropping out," she said, suggesting that higher education institutions should have a "pre-counselling" course for entrants to prevent problems escalating.

"There should also be a student mental health service in addition to the student advisory service, which has to cope with everything from accommodation to finance, a complementary system dealing specifically with mental health problems," she said.

Stephen Johnson, director of Glasgow University's residential, business and catering services, urged that student support staff should take part in quality assessments in a bid to reduce drop-out rates.

"It's interesting that universities' performance in terms of looking after students is judged primarily by academic staff, and we would hope they would think about rather more specific criteria," he said. "Support professionals look at students in the round and realise that going into higher education is not simply an academic experience, but an educational experience in the widest sense of that term."

Bill Harvey, senior assessor of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council's quality assessment branch, warned that a caring attitude was not the same as effective support, and that higher education should be promoting students' development as autonomous learners, not dependants.

If roles were not clearly defined, he said, staff would invent their own, taking, for example, a parental or protective role, or dismissing student support as "not their job".