For the first time in Estonian EUROSTUDENT studies the total population sampling was used, i.e. the questionnaire was sent to all students who belong to the target group. In total 2760 students participated in the survey. The overview of indicators created based on the EUROSTUDENT VII Estonian data focuses on three main topics.
The first one is equal opportunities in higher education that aims at studying whether participating in higher education is related to educational level and economical situation of students’ parents, whether a student is a parent or not, the language in which the basic education was acquired, the existence of special need, and previously acquired education. The overview shows, for instance, that:
- Students’ parents are more educated than the population in average. On the other hand, the share of students whose both parents are without higher education has somewhat increased.
- Every fifth student is a parent, but this share varies from 3% in natural science, maths and statistics to 44% in educational science. Only a bit more than half (56%) of the students who are parents to a child up to 7 years old feel that they can focus on their studies sufficiently.
The second topic is study and working patterns. The study reveals that:
- Two out of three (68%) students work during their studies. 53% of them work regularly.
- Students dedicate 34 hours per week to studies and 28 hours to working. While the time dedicated to studies has in recent years increased a bit, the amount of average working hours compared to the recent studies’ results has decreased by three hours.
- The most common reason for working is to cover the living expenses.
The third topic is students’ mental health related questions which were studied first time in Estonian EUROSTUDENT studies’ history. More specifically students’ emotional well-being and bullying in higher education was studied. The results show, for instance:
- The emotional well-being of students who work during their studies is better than of those who do not work, and the emotional well-being of student-parents is better than of those who do not have children.
- Students acquiring bachelor’s degee and younger students have mental health problems most oftenly.
- 5% of Estonian students have experienced bullying.
EUROSTUDENT website: www.eurostudent.eu
EUROSTUDENT VI Report: http2://www.praxis.ee/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Eurostudent-VII-Eesti-anal%C3%BC%C3%BCs.pdf
EUROSTUDENT Twitter: https://twitter.com/EUROSTUDENTtwt
EUROSTUDENT VII Estonian Report: http2://www.praxis.ee/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Eurostudent-VII-Eesti-anal%C3%BC%C3%BCs.pdf
EUROSTUDENT V Estonian Report (by RAKE)