Changes in Students’ Life at Selected Universities in Central and Eastern Europe during the First Stage of the Pandemic

The pandemic has changed several aspects of social life around the globe. It affected both the situation in higher education and the labour market, and students appeared to be one of the most vulnerable groups of the population, suffering in material, health and psychological aspects due to closing down or restriction in various sectors of the economy in the countries around the globe with a different socio-economic development level. This led scientists to study changes in students’ living situation and employment status resulting from the pandemic in many countries (Brammer, Clark 2020; Berezhna, Prokopenko 2020; Pravat 2020; Sokolovskaya 2020). Another aspect of the study was whether the COVID-19 pandemic changed students’ plans concerning the continuation of university education, which is one of the crucial life decisions affecting their future. It can be assumed that the pandemic drew attention to the possibility of online studies offered by universities and the importance of students’ employment, particularly in the context of unemployment causing difficulties in funding higher education. Even before the pandemic, in many countries (EUROSTUDENT VI, 2018), including Poland (Portfel studenta, 2020), an increase in the cost of living of studying youth could be noted. Many researchers has become interested in whether and to what extent students’ material situation during the pandemic has been affected by the general situation in the labour market available to them and whether it has influenced their plans to continue or drop out of education.

The changes caused by the pandemic need to be considered through students’ self-assessment of the material conditions and their main activities compared to the pre-COVID-19 reality. In the pre-pandemic period, students’ situation was analysed in many studies, and the primary area of activity next to studying was employment, treated as a characteristic feature of modern higher education (Hauschildt et al. 2015). The cyclical survey programme EUROSTUDENT has been particularly important for determining the current material and employment status of students since 2000. The programme’s objective is to show students’ social and economic situation and funding sources considering the data that can be compared across countries. Although initially the programme targeted students from the countries of the European Union, in 2012–2015, it also included students from Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Georgia (Hauschildt et al. 2015). The survey conducted within EUROSTUDENT showed that the majority of students on average came from well-off families. The countries with the highest percentage of families with poor and average material status are Croatia, Ireland, Romania and Turkey. The highest proportion of students indicating their parents’ material status as very good is from Sweden and the Netherlands (Hauschildt et al. 2018: 47). Regarding their financial situation, >60% of students experience moderate financial difficulties. The worst situation in this aspect is observed in Albania, Georgia, Iceland, Ireland, Poland and Slovenia (Hauschildt et al. 2018: 146). The level of students’ income was the highest in the Netherlands and Switzerland (>1,100 Purchasing Power Standard). Student groups particularly affected by financial difficulties are (1) those whose parents have a poor financial situation, (2) students with health problems and impairments, and (3) those who depend on national public student support. On average, 69% of the employed students work to cover their living costs (Combining studies and paid jobs… 2018). Half of them claim that they would not be able to afford to study without their jobs. Countries with the highest percentage (80–92%) of students working to fund their living are Finland, Norway, Ireland and Denmark, and those with the lowest percentage are Ukraine (29%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (34%), Serbia and Montenegro (Hauschildt et al. 2015). During the pandemic, surveys conducted on a sample of 17,116 respondents from 41 European countries showed that approximately 11.5% of students experienced severe and almost 23% moderate financial difficulties (Student Life… 2020) regarding the education costs. When it comes to employment, 28.9% of students lost their jobs temporarily during the pandemic, whereas 12.2% lost their jobs permanently. This represents a risk factor for those who need to work to cover the costs of their studies. However, it was pointed out already before the pandemic that in Poland (EUROSTUDENT VI, 2018; Portfel studenta, 2020) and in other countries (Hauschildt et al. 2018), costs incurred by the academic youth were increasing. It became even more interesting whether and to what degree students’ material situation during the pandemic was affected by the general situation in the labour market and changes in the functioning of universities in many countries.

In 2020, one more study appeared, showing various aspects of students’ life in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) region during the COVID-19 pandemic (Student Life… 2020). The aforementioned analysis included students’ material situation during the pandemic, changes in their well-being and health ailments most characteristic of the period in the EHEA region.

Apparently, the most important lines of research on the situation of students in the pre-pandemic period, discussed in the literature were (1) satisfaction with students’ life, in combination with life goals, (2) life values and priorities, and (3) the quality of life and material conditions. On the other hand, the pandemic factor highlighted the importance of examining students’ health conditions (both in physical and mental terms) and the impact of online or hybrid studies on their future study plans, financial situation and life plans.

Our paper analysed, among other things, the material situation of students in Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus during the pandemic, as well as changes in their well-being and most characteristic health ailments of the period. The choice of the research subject was not accidental. The countries studied—Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus—had a similar socio-economic situation in the early 1990s. However, the transition period in the countries considered went on in different ways and led to different development trajectories. Poland went through a relatively fast period of social, economic and institutional transformation and joined the EU in 2004. As a result, positive changes evolved in various spheres of socio-economic life, including students’ life. On the other hand, in both Ukraine and Belarus the socio-economic and political transition has been protracted and characterised by a number of political, social, demographic and economic issues. These issues have had a destructive impact on the human and social capital of the younger generation. At the same time Belarus and Ukraine differ in political trajectories, economic development, and social policy, what is notable in various aspects of students’ life discussed in this article.

In the period before the pandemic, the situation of students was analysed in many studies, but little attention was paid to the well-being and health problems of the students in the EHEA. The authors fill this gap by presenting the results of the research conducted at four universities: in Poland—at the Marie Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, in Ukraine—at the National Pedagogical Dragomanov University in Kyiv and in Belarus—Belarusian State University in Minsk, and Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics in Minsk. Our research disclosed that students in Poland, Ukraine and Belarus were seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of losing employment, changing plans on university education and serious deterioration of the material situation and health status. The comparative analysis of the aforementioned aspects of students’ life shows some similarities and differences among the analysed countries, but the scale of the destructive influence of the pandemic on all the investigated aspects of students’ life was considerably high in all countries, including Poland, Ukraine and Belarus that are considered in our research.

Preliminary results of the study have already been published in Geographia Polonica, vol. 94, issue 3 (pp. 429–440) (Kawczyńska-Butrym et al. 2021), and this manuscript contains an expanded version of the analysis (in terms of regions/cities and socio-demographic groups of respondents). It concerns such areas of students’ life as employment, material situation, further education plans, life preferences, as well as health conditions. The article also contains an extended theoretical introduction about the distinctive features of the first wave of the pandemic, discussion threads and literature on the subject. It also gives a summary of the research results in the context of the duration of the first wave of the pandemic in the countries considered.

The authors are aware that the presented results cannot be directly compared with the results of the large representative studies mentioned above (e.g. EUROSTUDENT; Student Life… 2020). However, they demonstrate the current trends that affect different aspects of students’ life situation during the first wave of the pandemic in the countries considered.

In recent years, the number of working students has been increasing (Orr et al. 2011). Although there has been a long record of poorer students taking up employment (Lenart 2014), it is only recently that students’ paid jobs have become a focus of research interest.

This interest is largely due to an increase in students’ double engagement (studies and work). According to the EUROSTUDENT data, the growing number of students seek employment. It is one of their primary income sources and the basis of making a living while studying. Clearly, it is supplemented by the support of families, constituting 46% of students’ income, and other sources: scholarships, rewards, subsidies – 11%, and student loans – 9% (Hauschildt et al. 2018). In many countries, next to the family’s support, a significant source of financing university education is loans taken out by students or their families (Pravat 2020). At the same time, it has been emphasised that employment considerably improves the general standard of students’ life, secures fees required during studies, and therefore often makes it possible for the students to study themselves. Student employment, however, is considered not only a fundamental source of covering living and education costs but one of the modern student lifestyles increasing human capital. It has been also stressed that student employment plays an essential role in obtaining professional competencies and facilitates entering the labour market after graduation. The analysis of employment and life strategies of students in our survey would not be complete without considering their health condition, even though the question of their health has been entirely overlooked in the cyclical survey of the EUROSTUDENT programme mentioned above. It has only become a subject of research in the EHEA countries during the pandemic (Student Life… 2020).

Irrespective of EUROSTUDENT, students’ socio-economic situation and employment are also the subject of research in the three countries of our interest: Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. The results of such research are presented, among others, by Godlevska and Grečaniuk (2008), Bącik et al. (2010), Rekowski and Zubrzycka (2015), Marozau and Apanasovich (2016), Ostoj (2016), Parchomiuk and Zubrzycka-Maciąg (2017), Ignatovitch et al. (2018), Zimolzak and Bodzon (2019), Sokolova (2019) and Lebedevich (2019).

This paper does not formulate a research hypothesis but indicates the main aim and questions of the study. The research objective was to determine if and to what extent the material situation of students has changed, whether it co-occurred with loss of employment, worsening of health self-assessment, declaration of a change in life orientations and plans regarding the continuation of university education.

The study covered the following questions: –

Did the students’ self-assessment of the material situation change during the pandemic? Did such a change co-occur with the loss or limitation of employment?

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked research into changes it caused among students from the countries considered in its first months. The survey was conducted among students of universities representing four academic institutions: Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin (UMCS, Poland), National Dragomanov Pedagogical University in Kyiv (UD, Ukraine), Belarusian State University in Minsk (BSU, Belarus), and Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics in Minsk (BSUIR, Belarus).

Owing to the pandemic-related restrictions on direct contact, an online survey was used. The original survey was built using the Computer Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method and contained 20 questions (including the metric ones). The questionnaire was sent to the students of the four mentioned universities. In line with the formulated research questions, the survey included several question blocks that concerned plans for continuing education, livelihood during the studies, paid work, life preferences and a comparison of health and psychosomatic symptoms during the first period of the pandemic. Metric questions were put at the end of the survey. The study started in mid-June, at the end of the semester, which was partly online due to the pandemic. The survey was completed in mid-July, after the end of the academic year. The period was not optimal for conducting the survey, as it was the end of the term with the subsequent tests, exams and defences of theses—all held online. Still, we wanted to capture the changes in students’ situation in the first period of the pandemic. At the time, we did not predict its further stages and longer duration.

The research conducted was only a pilot study and covered the first period of several months (March–July 2020). It was aimed at identifying the preliminary trends in the pandemic-caused changes in the life situation of students in the three countries studied. A further objective was to set the scope of further research among the students in those countries and draw in-depth comparisons among them concerning the subsequent periods of the pandemic. The online nature of the survey did not permit controlled sample selection. Due to the lack of representativeness of the groups of respondents, the relatively low number of returned questionnaires (380), and the number of variables from the selected academic centres, statistical tests could not be applied and it was limited to a per cent analysis. The general characteristics of the respondents are provided in Table 1.

It should be added that the research also involved foreign students studying outside their country of origin at the universities considered. Hence the differences between the number of students studying in Minsk and the total number of students from Belarus, the number of students studying in Kyiv and the total number of students from Ukraine. These differences allowed establishing that 45 students were studying outside their country of origin. The surveys returned were too few to provide a basis for formulating a separate research problem. However, it was assumed that the pandemic is more emotionally burdensome for young people studying in a foreign country (foreign students) than for young people studying in their country of origin. It can be either the result or the cause of the change in the students’ situation that we considered. The results obtained should be regarded as a signal and are not subject to generalisation. Likewise, our whole research, due to the limited participation, cannot be compared with the results of studies involving much larger groups of students.

As emphasised in the introduction, the global character of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of life and functioning of higher education and has definitely affected the situation of students. Publications that analyse the situation related to the COVID-19 pandemic highlight a broad range of changes in higher education institutions, as the pandemic forced the abandonment of the previous form of study (Pravat 2020). Online education was introduced at universities, which weakened national and international academic mobility (Pravat 2020: 80), and influenced both students and university employees in many ways. According to the author cited above, remote education will continue. There is a general opinion that the system of higher education will never be the same after the pandemic (Štychno et al. 2020). Due to the transition to online classes, students from Canada also expect a decrease in the value of the obtained diploma after graduation compared to its value in the years preceding the pandemic (Firang 2020).

On the other hand, attention has been paid to the possibility of intensification of financial problems of students and their families. Growing expenditures of an average student and increasing total costs of studying were revealed already before the pandemic (Hauschildt et al. 2018). They were recognised as a reason for the increasing incidence of taking up employment. The situation worsened because the COVID-19 pandemic affected students’ finances (Portfel studenta, 2020: 23), reduced their savings (ibid. p. 27) and changed their employment situation. One of the groups of employees most affected by COVID-19 was students working before the pandemic (Bartosiewicz 2020). The increasing costs of studies and loss of income from employment have resulted in a worse material situation of students as compared to the pre-pandemic level (Rudke 2020). This unfavourable change can be considered a crisis. Thus, we can refer to earlier research, as the 2008 economic crisis similarly affected the life situation of students in Portugal (Cairns 2011). The debt crisis became an additional financial problem. It resulted from the loss of employment by some working students and caused difficulties in payment of the loans they or their families obtained for education (Pravat 2020: 80). Both situations, i.e. financial difficulties and the change in the functioning of universities, contribute to limiting the students’ international and domestic mobility (Student Life… 2020), which has been confirmed by the results of our survey. Students declare changes of plans concerning the continuation of education (permanent or temporary suspension of studies or discontinuation of studying abroad). Moreover, students are disturbed by the universities’ pricing policy (the same education fee irrespective of the form of classes). This factor additionally contributes to the decision about leaving university, as foreign students have difficulty in finding employment to finance their education abroad (Firang 2020).

The following conclusions summarise the results of our survey:

In three academic centres, before the pandemic, students participating in the survey assessed their material situation relatively negatively. During the pandemic, 46.6% declared its worsening. Foreign students declared the deterioration of their material situation more frequently than domestic students (56.8% and 46.0%, respectively). In many cases, this co-occurred with loss of employment: 26.3% out of the total of previously employed students lost their jobs. However, loss of employment was reported more frequently by domestic (27.7%) than foreign students (17.7%).

The research requires continuation and extension (particularly in the context of health condition of studying youth, i.e. human and social potential directly determining socio-economic development and the future of the analysed countries). Moreover, it appears necessary to identify problems related to the later, intensified waves of COVID-19 infections. Owing to an increase in the differences between the first and the later waves of the pandemic, stricter limitations on mobility in all the analysed countries, as well as the intensification of the effect of other factors on the health and well-being of students and their life plans (political and migration crisis in Belarus, threat of war and annexation in Ukraine, transition to online education in all the analysed countries, signalled worsening of the emotional condition of students during the later stages of the pandemic in comparison to the first one), further research priority regards competitiveness of students in the labour market. In addition, it would be necessary to consider the migration activity of foreign students in the context of remote studying, the internationalisation of universities and the assessment of the socio-economic contribution of foreign students in their country of education.