The Student Living Monitor aims to gather the views of around 850K students across key European markets and examine the relationship between student accommodation facilities and the services they provide and the wellness of those living in these environments.
The data gathered will allow us to develop an understanding of what can be done to improve student wellbeing from a housing perspective, in addition to engaging key stakeholders to tackle the issue collectively.
Why this & why now?
Based on a pilot survey launched in the Netherlands in 2021, we found that:
- Students were struggling and overall were rated as psychologically unhealthy.
- Certain facilities and services (such as communal areas, socialising opportunities) boosted their wellbeing and living experience more than others.
- Different cohorts of students benefit from different types of services and facilities in contrasting ways.
- Vulnerable groups with appropriate support show greater mental wellbeing than those without – but there is more to do.
Scope & Reach
The 2023 Student Living Monitor will reach 850k students across UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Poland, The Nordic countries, and the Netherlands.
The survey will be sent to students via accommodation providers, higher education institutes, and student organisations through our network of operators and strategic partners such as EAIE, ICEF, ESN, CUBO, NSBO, Nuffic etc.
The involvement of strategic partners ensure that we are reaching students who live in housing besides PBSA. This is will allow us to compare how students living in PBSA fare against students in other housing arrangements; a crucial aspect of the survey.
Question strategy & stucture
The survey uses a well-recognised Mental Health Index-5 metric (MHI-5), an international standard for assessing mental health, and the ‘Living Experience’ score. Respondents will be asked about their personal, educational, and housing circumstances.
Analysis & Results
The data analysis will be done by The Class research team, and if participating operators and strategic partners want to be involved in the process, seeking specific data insights, we welcome the collaboration.
Creating Impact
Stakeholders who choose to join will benefit from specific relevant reports catered to them:
- With individual reports, operators can create an internal benchmark and see how their assets and provided facilities are performing, how their students are faring, and which group of students may need more support. They can also compare their assets.
- With country reports, they see how they are doing compared to the overall country performance.
Collective Agenda
Across Europe, our community focuses on establishing more quality housing to address the housing shortage. We also realise the importance of student well-being and how housing plays a predominant role in impacting this. Several regional surveys, for instance, the 2021 Nuffic report, and The Class pilot survey, both reveal many students in the Netherlands suffer from poor mental health and the lack of adequate support. The Class aims to work closely with all stakeholders to identify relevant areas of focus, define policy recommendations, and determine the next course of action collaboratively.
We are excited to speak to members of our community who would like to join us on this journey - register your interest and we'll be in touch.
