The primacy of meeting public university students’ essential needs in the wake of COVID-19: An overdue higher education priority

Abstract

Objectives

We investigated the holistic experiences of university students during the pandemic.

Participants

Thirty-eight students in a public university system in New York City (NYC) purposively selected from neighborhoods highly affected by the pandemic based on level of self-reported impact.

Methods

We conducted virtual in-depth interviews from May to August 2021 and analyzed data using thematic coding and constant comparison techniques informed by grounded theory.

Results

Financial and social support systems, such as governmental and school resources, were critical to addressing essential needs and allowing students to persist. For those whose essential needs were met, faculty members’ flexibility and students’ experience with online learning were central to their academic success.

Conclusions

Institutions of higher education should strengthen financial and social support systems to meet students’ essential needs. Academic policies to bolster online pedagogy and faculty’s flexibility can facilitate student retention and completion.

Keywords:

• COVID-19
• essential needs
• faculty
• pandemic

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Tara Twiste and Natalya Petroff from the CUNY Office of Applied Research, Evaluation and Data Analysis for their collaboration in aiding with the sampling. We would also like to thank Melissa Carreno and Nida Joseph for transcription and Patricia Lamberson, who helped in her role as Deputy Director of Healthy CUNY.

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the United States and received approval from the City University of New York Institutional Review Board.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a grant from the New York City Mayor’s Office for Economic Development.