A majority of people who haven’t got a college degree or industry credential want higher education to be a part of their future. But even when they get access, significant barriers to completing their courses remain – and cost is not the biggest one.
According to a survey released by Gallup and the Lumina Foundation, 90% percent of adults without a college degree or an industry credential say degrees or certificates are “very” or “extremely” valuable. Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed had considered pursuing at least one degree or credential in the past two years. Forty-eight percent of those not currently in college said they are either very likely or likely to enroll.
But of those who have enrolled, almost a third – 32% – are considering dropping out.
Sometimes it’s because they can’t afford their education, but “students who
considered stopping out are about twice as likely to cite mental health or emotional stress as
the reason as to cite cost,” the report by Gallup and Lumina Foundation said.
Among students who considered stopping out in recent months, Higher Ed Drive reported, “49% said it was due to emotional stress and 41% cited personal mental health reasons. Almost a quarter, 24%, pointed to the cost of college and a sense of not belonging.”
According to the report, stresses students faced in their college programs included:
- anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions (74%)
- loneliness and isolation (60%)
- too much coursework (56%)
- job related stresses that interfered with their education (50%)
Perhaps that’s why, over the last several years, colleges have reported massive increases in the demand for mental health services, even predating the pandemic.
When a third of students see college as a significant boost to their careers but are thinking of dropping out because of stress, isolation, and mental health issues, it becomes a systemic problem, one that colleges need new approaches to address.
Students Should Never Have To Struggle Alone – At Calbright, They’ve Got A Team
Calbright was designed by the state of California to be a research institution that creates new approaches to adult online education, and solves systemic barriers to accessibility and program completion.
Helping remote students maintain their mental health is one of those key approaches.
As colleges discovered in the pandemic, offering psychological support to students in remote classes is a new and difficult challenge. According to EdSource, “A major concern, professionals say, is that students in distress will be harder to spot and offer help to. With online classes, professors may be unable to pick up clues such as weight loss or absence.” And without dorms or in-person classes, “resident assistants can’t drop in on students who are not leaving their rooms or are abusing alcohol and drugs.”
Calbright has spent years finding innovative ways to step up and meet online students’ needs. It offers community through online communication tools like Slack, personalized counseling and support for students who want it, regular check-ins with staff who are familiar with a student’s life and circumstances, and robust on-call wellness services like TimelyCare, providing 24/7 mental health and medical support.
That’s made a difference to students like David, an IT Support student whose mother died during the pandemic, and who struggled to stay on track in his studies and his life.
“Motivation became difficult for me,” he said. “Some depression came in. I was surprised that one of Calbright’s counselors reached out to me, and we set up weekly check-ins. I was surprised at how influential that was. It got me motivated again, it was nice to have a human face to check in with after being so isolated. It was friendly and a relationship. It helped me get back on track.”
Michael, whose family had medical problems while he was a student, had the same experience.
“From the moment I applied there was always somebody (at Calbright) to help me set and keep track of my goals,” he said. “I was trying to shoot for a lesson a week, and I was doing pretty good for a while until my wife had surgery. I hit a slump and had to slow down, but I’d still get emails from Calbright reminding me of my goals and letting me know that if there’s anything that I needed there were people there to help. And those people did help me get back on track, and since then it’s been working really well.”
Binh doesn’t just credit Calbright with helping him find a job that he wanted – he said Calbright’s counseling staff helped him understand burnout when he was a student, and helped him avoid it in his professional life.
“I didn’t know what I was dealing with before,” he said. “Mental health challenges were never talked about. I was just supposed to man up. So Calbright’s given me a lot. Talking to counselors, learning how to manage burnout, acknowledging my situation. My accessibility counselor at Calbright always reminds me that I need time to heal. My career counselor kept pointing me towards better jobs that were a good fit for my skills, which at first I didn’t even think about applying for. It was a learning experience for me.”
At a time when more and more students, whether in traditional or online colleges, are struggling with mental health, Calbright is proving there is more that colleges can do to help.
