For the Media

keltainen sahalaitakuvio; gul sicksackmönster; yellow zigzag pattern

Media Contacts

Minna Savolainen
Executive Director
+358 44 589 6117
minna.savolainen@nyyti.fi

See also

Information on student mental health

On this page, you will find compiled information on the current state of higher education students. The collected data is based on researched information.

One in four students experiences harmful loneliness

One in four higher education students (24%) felt lonely either fairly often or constantly (KOTT 2021).

Students’ feelings of loneliness increased during the pandemic

Three out of five (63%) higher education students reported an increase in feelings of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic (KOTT 2021).

Students’ sense of belonging to their community has clearly decreased

Higher education students’ sense of belonging within their field’s student community has decreased by 19 percentage points (Student Barometer 2022).

Nearly one-third of students do not feel they belong to any group

Among higher education students, 29% do not feel they belong to any group (KOTT 2021).

One-third of students show symptoms of anxiety and depression

One in three higher education students experiences symptoms of anxiety and depression. Psychological symptoms and stress levels are higher among students compared to the entire adult population (KOTT 2021).

More than half of students feel they do not receive the mental health services they need

65% of students who required mental health services feel they did not receive enough support (KOTT 2021).

More information

  • A blog post reflecting the preliminary results of the Otus Student Barometer 2022 on Nyyti’s website: Compassion acts as a counterforce to students’ feelings of loneliness and exclusion (link opens in a new window).
  • A news article reflecting the results of KOTT 2021 on Nyyti’s website: Students’ mental health is in crisis (link opens in a new window).
  • Information on loneliness (link opens in a new window).
  • Information on men’s mental health (link opens in a new window).
  • THL’s press release from June 16, 2021: Distance learning and loneliness have been challenging higher education students (link redirects to an external site and opens in a new window).

Sources

  • The full KOTT 2021 Higher Education Students’ Health Survey (link redirects to an external site and opens in a new window).
  • The PowerPoint presentation on Mental health, lifestyles, and group belonging of higher education students – Results from KOTT 2021 (link redirects to an external site and opens in a new window).