Stress and anxiety most-challenging for students to cope with during the pandemic

BENGALURU: Stress, anxiety and loneliness have been the most challenging to cope with during Covid-19, say 49 per cent students in a survey.

However, even though mental well-being has been the most impacted by the pandemic’s social consequences, there is still a silver lining and the larger outlook is one of hope for this year, finds the survey by BML Munjal University (BMU), a Hero Group initiative.

Approximately 26 per cent of respondents cited not being able to keep up academically to be most challenging, and about 15 per cent said that not having a dedicated place for studying at home was a challenge and 10.47 per cent cited poor internet connectivity to be a pressing concern.


Fifty five per cent of college students are concerned, of which 38 per cent say they are very concerned about their future because of the uncertainty of the situation. In this scenario, their expectations from their college are to offer functional courses that would be more relevant in the new normal. Further, 51 per cent of students cite this as an expectation while 32 per cent of students expect their college to facilitate industry placements.

“This black swan event has upended the daily lives of students with the emergency closures of campuses across the country and the shift to online instruction. We are keenly aware that the current situation is stressful but it has been our endeavour to support our students during this time. We are constantly innovating to design a future roadmap to guide students on the next course of action,” said Prof. (Dr.) Manoj Arora, vice-chancellor, BML Munjal University.

Social isolation has been difficult to deal with and 37 per cent of respondents said that they have missed their friends acutely, followed by the buzz of social events (25 per cent) and hands-on training on campus.

However, about 78 per cent of students surveyed are feeling more hopeful about the future than they did when the pandemic began. Of these, nearly 40 per cent said that with the vaccination drive underway, they are hopeful that normal life will resume soon.

The survey also finds that students have taken away important learnings from this global pandemic. 37 per cent of young adults said they realised the importance of mental and physical health, 28 per cent said they understood the importance of family and friends and nurturing relationships, and 12 per cent said that the pandemic has restored their confidence in the resilience of the human spirit. While students have missed their college campuses and are eager to return, one out of every two students said that the future of learning will be hybrid.

BMU undertook this survey in the January-February 2021 time frame with 600+ students across high school (10 per cent), under–graduates (66 per cent) and PG courses (15 per cent). Under 10 per cent were those who had passed out of college. Of these, 72 per cent respondents were male and 28 per cent were female.