COVID-19 Impact
The Student Experience at the Research University is an Academic and policy research collaboration based at Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California – Berkeley (CSHE) working in partnership with the University of Minnesota, the International Graduate Insight Group Ltd (i-graduate), the Higher School of Economics – Moscow, and member universities (Soria, et. al., 2021).
SERU has brought to light the struggles that first-generation students enrolled at large public research universities have experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, like our UTSA students (2021).
From May through July 2020, 28,198 undergraduates were surveyed at 9 universities; 26% of respondents (n = 7,233) identified as first-generation students (Soria, et. al., 2021). The survey exposed that first-generation students were more likely than continuing-generation students to experience financial hardships during the pandemic, including lost wages from family members, lost wages from on- or off-campus employment, and increased living and technology expenses (Soria, et. al., 2021). Compared to continuing-generation students, first-generation students were nearly twice as likely to be concerned about paying for their education in fall 2020. (Soria, et. al., 2021).