Australian students report unequal wellbeing experiences

Updated Sep 07, 2026

University experiences may relate differently to wellbeing across student groups. Angus Gilmore, Tracii Ryan, Chenhao Liang and Chi Baik examine this question in Who experiences university as most challenging to mental health and wellbeing? Insights from a national survey of Australian undergraduates, published online in Studies in Higher Education on 19 August 2026.

What the research team reports publicly

In a public account shared by Melbourne’s Centre for the Study of Higher Education, coauthor Tracii Ryan describes responses from 19,057 Australian undergraduates collected during 2023–2025. The team examined demographic differences in mental health and wellbeing and their relationship with students’ university experiences.

That account identifies LGBTQIA+ students, gender minority students, students with disability and female-identifying students as groups experiencing particular challenges. It reports no substantial differences in the perceived supportiveness of university experiences by international, first-generation, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status. This is a statement about that comparison, rather than a claim that these groups have identical needs or outcomes.

The official Uni Student Wellbeing publication list confirms the paper’s authors, title, journal and DOI.

How a university could use this question

Student Voice’s practical interpretation is to investigate local experiences without assigning students a fixed risk profile from their demographic characteristics. Ask which parts of studying feel supportive or difficult, and consider how experiences vary within a group as well as between groups.

Where teams compare responses, use appropriate disclosure controls and check who answered. Missing voices, different response patterns and overlapping characteristics can affect interpretation. A broad group difference does not identify an individual student’s needs or establish the cause of distress.

Open comments can help teams understand what respondents describe, alongside appropriately chosen survey measures and other evidence. The student comment analysis governance checklist offers questions for planning that work. These are local review suggestions; this brief does not establish that a particular survey or intervention will improve mental health.

Evidence limits

The publisher full text and PDF could not be accessed during this review. The account above is limited to the research team’s public summary and verified citation metadata. It does not independently verify the paper’s measures, sampling, response rates, statistical models, coefficients, mediation estimates or quotations.

The earlier claim that academic stress was the strongest measured distress signal has been removed pending access to the supporting analysis. This access limitation does not show that the claim is false; it means this review cannot substantiate it. The Australian findings should not be presented as UK prevalence estimates or causal evidence for a particular intervention.

Reference

Gilmore, A., Ryan, T., Liang, C. and Baik, C. (2026). Who experiences university as most challenging to mental health and wellbeing? Insights from a national survey of Australian undergraduates. Studies in Higher Education. DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2026.2718479.