The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education students in New Zealand

The coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdowns have had broad impacts across societies globally. In particularly, the move to online learning for students in higher education has been disruptive and challenging. We report on the New Zealand arm of an international survey of higher education students (n = 147), investigating students’ experiences of online teaching and the impacts of lockdown. Using quantitative and qualitative data from the survey, we find that students coped reasonably well with the disruption to their studies, and were generally satisfied with how their lecturers and institutions responded to the unanticipated lockdowns. However, many students felt that their studies were negatively impacted, and in particular, vulnerable groups such as students with low financial resources, were most severely impacted. Moreover, students reported a range of negative emotions during lockdown that suggest mental health impacts may be a concern. Our results suggest that clear communication from authorities, reducing the uncertainty for students, and ensuring that vulnerable groups are appropriately supported, may be the best avenues to reduced negative impacts on students during future significant disruptions to study, whether pandemic-related or otherwise.