The beginning of the 2025-2026 academic year began for most students in early October. For many, the beginning of the semester is for settling into university, finding new buildings, as well as meeting new classmates and faculty. However, there have been growing reports of student’s workloads increasing drastically, not only regarding the expectations of time spent outside of contact-time, but also the expectations of teaching staff.
One student in the school of Media, Arts and Humanities reported being told by a seminar tutor that “the University owns you for as many hours as a full-time job,” going on to state that over twenty-five hours of reading would be set each week as an “expectation for minimum work”. This comes not even a week into the beginning of the semester, causing panic for some students, with FE conducting a report stating that “71% of students say they tend to feel anxious about their classes” and a further “64% say[ing] they do not get enough sleep”.
A report conducted by TASO investigated the leading causes of declining mental health in university students. In the report, the percentage of those reporting mental health difficulties rose from 6% in 2017 to approximately 16% in 2023. A 2022 Student Mental Health Study found that 81% of students had been affected by mental health difficulties, with a leading cause being overwork or burnout.
Burnout is a rising issue among university students, given the cost-of-living crisis in the UK. Many students need to pick up a job alongside their studies just to ensure enough income for living and rent. The Badger spoke to some students having to undertake part-time work alongside their studies, with many complaining of not enough time to complete readings in full before seminars, or having to miss seminars in order to take on shifts. One student had to “pick up so many shifts one week to pay rent that I ended up doing over thirty-five hours in one week and crashing out on my day off, which was meant to be university contact time”. Another student complained that “my seminar tutor expects me to do twenty hours of reading without considering I am already working over thirty hours to make ends meet! When am I meant to look after my mental health and see friends, etc?”
In a survey conducted by the Advance HE Student Academic Experience Survey in 2025, 68% of full-time undergraduates reported undertaking paid work during term time. It seems as though students are expected to assume all of the adult responsibilities of working, shifts, and bills alongside the student responsibilities of reading, attending seminars, and completing extracurricular activities.
The question remaining is whether universities provide enough support to students to cope with the growing financial and academic expectations?
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