Coronavirus (COVID-19): student hardship - case studies: report

2. Methodology

This project builds on data from two sources of information:

Contextual information gathered from institutions and third sector organisations^[2]  helped to identify themes for the delivery of case study interviews by identifying typical / recurrent sets of circumstances that the case studies should address; and

Case study interviews with students which allowed a focus on the particular sets of personal circumstances identified via the contextual information above, and linking of these with a more detailed discussion of employment, access to benefits and particular trajectories of hardship.

It is important to note that data from the sources above were obtained at different time periods.  This is an important consideration given the rapidly evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated policy response.  In particular, aspects of the policy environment had already changed by the time one stage of data gathering had been completed. This issue is picked up in the conclusions chapter (see section 5.5).  Contextual information was provided by institutions throughout May and June 2020, while the case study interviews were undertaken in July and early August 2020.  Annex 3 provides an overview of the main policy developments that took place during the lifetime of the project.

2.1 Contextual information from institutions and providers

Universities and third sector organisations were asked to provide the Scottish Government with information on their experiences of dealing with requests for assistance from students, resulting from COVID-19 related lockdown restrictions. Responses were received from 14 institutions and organisations (nine from universities and five from third sector organisations).  Although this is only a partial picture of the sector, the returns provided rich contextual data to set the student interviews against and a reasonable breadth of responses given the short timescales involved.  Within the timescales of the project it was unfortunately not possible to seek responses from colleges, although three college students participated in the case study interviews (see section 2.2).

2.2 Case study interviews with students

10 semi-structured online interviews were undertaken with students from a variety of backgrounds and with different demographic characteristics. The aim was to focus on reaching a high proportion of working students but also with an interest in having good representation of the following characteristics: 

• Students with caring responsibilities; 
• European Union (EU) students; 
• International students; and 
• Care experienced and estranged students.

Box 2.1: Who took part in the case study interviews? Eight different ways of describing the interview sample

As part of the interviews, Scottish Government researchers spoke to 10 students who can be categorised in the following ways:

5 undergraduates;
2 postgraduates;
2 higher education (HE) college students; and
1 further education (FE) college student.

Or…
5 students who identified as male; and
5 students who identified as female.

Or…
6 students from Scotland;
2 international students^[3]; and
2 EU students^[4].

Or…
2 students with childcare responsibilities; and
8 students with no caring responsibilities.

Or…
8 students who had been working in some capacity prior to lockdown; and
2 students who had not.

Or…
5 students who considered themselves to be disabled; and
5 students who did not.

Or…
3 mature (also referred to as 'independent') students; and
7 young (also referred to as 'dependent') students.

Or…
2 care experienced and/or estranged students; and
8 students without such experience.

Other desired demographic characteristics in the sample were: (i) an even gender split; (ii) good representation of disabled / non-disabled students; (iii) students from universities and colleges; and (iv) mature students. This was largely achieved in the sample, although it was not possible to speak to any students who cared for an adult. Also, only one care experienced student and one Further Education (FE) college student were interviewed (see Box 2.1 above).

Average interview length was 20 minutes. The interview topic guide and questions are included at Annex 2. In some cases the interview was shorter, particularly where students did not report having experienced hardship or needing to access support services. 

The combination of contextual information provided by institutions and third sector organisations and the student interviews supports stronger conclusions about the overall situation for students resulting from COVID-19 restrictions.

2.3 Limitations of the research 

The depth and scope of this research was necessarily limited (e.g. due to resources and timescales).  Whilst the case study analysis provides some rich evidence on the types of hardship experienced by students during COVID-19, it is not representative of the student population in Scotland as a whole.  Accordingly, further quantitaive research is advisable to fully understand the population level prevalence of these hardship issues (see Annex A for further details).

The contextual information provided by institutions was also limited due to the timescales involved.  It would have been useful, in particular, to have diverted some resource to securing responses from colleges.