Students’ well-being and factors impacting it during COVID-19 pandemic–early findings from Delft University of Technology

Abstract

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, student well-being was highlighted as an important public health issue. The study aims to gain insights into the exact factors that bachelor and master students from engineering fields at Delft University of Technology are impacted by. Multiple interviews were performed to identify the key areas of impact and then incorporated into a comprehensive survey. The questionnaire was divided into five blocks: course work factors, thesis, communication, study environment, the COVID-19 pandemic and disseminated between June and September of 2021. A convenience sample of 165 responses was collected and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) test was employed to quantify the well-being of the students. The survey analysis found different well-being scores between the students from the bachelor and master programs and concluded that having a consistent work environment played an important role in students’ welfare. The COVID-19-related findings revealed that the recordings of lectures and remote studying were the most appreciated. The thesis-related section showed that the clarity and objectives of the thesis writing are particularly impactful. Although some of the findings are university specific, the recommendations could be considered by other universities as they refer to general indicators and relationships.