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What Wellbeing Supports do Undergraduate Students Prioritise: Analysis of Qualitative Survey Responses

Undergraduate higher education students are known to experience higher risk of depression, anxiety, and stress than the population as a whole. Higher education policy has emphasised the academic experience of students rather than their wellbeing while at college, leaving a gap in our understanding and collective action with regard to support offered in these important domains. The Student Information Project (SIP) at NUI Galway has carried out large yearly surveys of undergraduate students since 2016 to study wellbeing as part of the student experience. Besides using standardised quantitative measures, SIP has asked students to give qualitative open-ended responses to identify top priorities for improving the student experience. Over one thousand responses are available from the 2018 survey, with wellbeing evident as a key trend. Students identify mental health, relaxation, stress, and åssociated services as important priorities that colleges need to address. This project will analyse these qualitative responses using a qualitative content analysis methodology to identify the main themes in the feedback from students in relation to wellbeing experiences and necessary supports for students. This will provide much needed depth and context to complement that statistical picture already available from the standardised measures of depression, stress, and anxiety. It will also provide a basis to identify student-led suggestions for action and needed services, helping to ensure that the SIP findings can feed into service planning and innovation.