Health// This is What UK College Students Want You to Know About Their Mental Health During the Pandemic.

By Emillie Belmore
6 March 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic reached the United Kingdom in January 2020, since then the British public have endured three national lockdowns and over 104,000 deaths. Understandably, this has challenged many people’s mental health, with 49.6% of adults living in the UK reporting high levels of anxiety at the start of the first national lockdown. Colleges and sixth forms have closed; traditional exams have been cancelled. There has been a devastating mental impact for university students, which the British media has rightly highlighted. But what about college students?

As a college student, I feel my mental health has worsened. The uncertainty about returning to college after lockdown is lifted, and the uncertainty about how I will be graded without traditional A Level exams this summer has left me experiencing more anxiety than ever before. Despite engaging with self-care methods, like healthy eating and moderate amounts of exercise, I still feel like my anxiety and stress levels are spiralling out of control. After months of feeling this way, I began to wonder if other students were struggling too so I conducted an anonymous online survey to find out. The survey was completed by 670 college/sixth form students in the UK, shockingly only 2% stated that their mental health had not deteriorated since the pandemic began. Although this brought me comfort that I wasn’t the only one struggling I was horrified that mental health difficulties had become so widespread amongst college/sixth form students, and worse of all this hadn’t been reported or addressed at all.

Mya, from Leicester, who is currently studying A Levels in History, Politics, and English Literature kindly shared her experiences with me. Mya recalls her mental health deteriorating, leaving her with limited motivation to complete college work. She has been feeling more alone and stressed than usual, influenced by the disruption to her education and the worry resulting from her mother being a key worker. Mya has reached out for help with her deteriorating mental health, but is yet to receive the treatment she deserves due to the long waiting lists; a natural and unfortunate consequence of over-stretched and under-funded healthcare services. 

Mya is not the first to experience this; Mya will not be the last either. 

The United Kingdom must make young people’s mental health a priority.

Another A Level student, Owen from Cornwall, agrees that the disruption to his education due to the ongoing pandemic has caused him increased levels of stress. He has found online learning involves more work than he expected, and the uncertainty about how he will be graded now traditional exams cannot go ahead to be sources of damage to his mental health. Owen is thankful that his school has been offering excellent support to students struggling to cope, but he recognises that not all students in the UK have this luxury meaning there is a need for national support to ensure no student struggles alone. He believes students across the UK would benefit from increasing funding for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) so that young people can receive the help that they need when they need it. Owen’s belief is one backed by experts in youth mental health, with the Association of Child Psychotherapists saying that chronic underfunding of services is causing “a serious and worsening crisis.”

While lockdown measures and restrictions on household mixing are necessary to improve public health, it is important to ensure young people are adequately supported should they struggle with their mental health. A common reason stated by struggling college students is loss of support for a pre-existing mental health condition. This is no surprise when YoungMinds have reported that less than 1% of the NHS budget is invested into child and adolescent mental health services. 428 of the students surveyed have shared their opinion that in order to heal the harm we must dedicate more funding to child and adolescent mental health services. 

The unanimous and unheard opinion of college and sixth form students across the nation is this: we are struggling, and we need support. We can only hope that more funding is provided to mitigate the damage done, and that youth mental health will be prioritised in post-pandemic Britain.

College students in the UK currently struggling with their mental health can contact Samaritans 24/7 for free by phoning 116 123, or by emailing  

Emillie is a full time college student and freelance journalist from Cheshire, England. Her journalism captures her passion for amplifying unheard and marginalised voices that are all too often silenced. She is planning to begin a degree in English Language and Creative Writing this September, while continuing her journalism.