SA tertiary students hit hard by Covid-19
A survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Higher Health explored the living situation, space to study, food security and access to healthcare of the youth in the post-school education and training (PSET) sector.
AROUND 41% of students were unable to buy their own food after tertiary institutions closed to limit the spread of Covid-19, with 40.1% of youth returning home during the hard lockdown last year.
Less than one per cent reported that they had no place to stay.
These are some of the findings contained in the survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and Higher Health.
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According to the HSRC’s Professor Sibusiso Sifunda, the survey explored the living situation, space to study, food security and access to healthcare of the youth in the post-school education and training (PSET) sector.
It targeted students from all universities, Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and Community Education and Training (CET) colleges.
A total of 13 119 youth respondents, aged between 18 and 35, answered online questions during the first wave of Covid-19 infections.
Sifunda said the majority of the participants were first-year students.
“The team realised it was quite important for first-years to feature in larger numbers because they were the group that was affected the most because they barely spent two months in university when the lockdown started, and they had to leave the campuses.”
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