Understanding and measuring the wellbeing of Australian university students

Abstract

Australian university student populations have increased substantially within the past two decades. Troublingly, these large university student populations appear to be experiencing poor and declining rates of wellbeing. Recognition of poor wellbeing among university students has galvanised calls for universities to better support student wellbeing. Developing effective wellbeing policies requires robustly understanding the factors that underlie university student wellbeing. Evaluating the effectiveness of such policies requires validly measuring the wellbeing of large university populations. This thesis presents five interrelated studies which seek to elevate the understanding and measurement of Australian university student wellbeing.

This research represents an important contribution towards expanding the empirical evidence base into university student wellbeing. Of particular note, this thesis enhances understandings of how university experiences shape student wellbeing. This is an encouraging finding as it suggests that directly addressing features of university life may be an effective and under- utilised approach for supporting student wellbeing. This thesis also provides important and novel insights into potential methods for improving the measurement of university student wellbeing.