Wellbeing and the NSS: the potential of mindfulness and self-compassion for an enhanced student experience

ABSTRACT

High levels of stress, anxiety, negative thoughts and emotions are being increasingly reported amongst university students and all impact negatively upon academic performance and student satisfaction. A cross-sectional design was adopted to explore how personality traits and attitudes relevant to wellbeing (i.e. mindfulness, positive and negative affect, perceived stress, self-criticism and resiliency) could best predict student satisfaction as measured by a simulated National Student Survey (NSS). It was found that students who scored higher in mindfulness, positive affect and resiliency reported higher levels of satisfaction on the NSS. Contrarily, negative affect and perceived stress significantly predicted lower levels of satisfaction on the NSS. Mindfulness was the strongest predictor of higher NSS scores; however, students who criticise themselves (the opposite of self-compassion) do not appear to benefit from mindfulness. A directive for introducing ‘life skills’ within higher education environments, with the purpose of building more resilient and better-performing graduates through mindfulness and self-compassion, is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Mindfulness
• higher education
• self-compassion
• self-criticism
• National Student Survey (NSS)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michail Mantzios

Michail Mantzios is a Reader in Health Psychology and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. A common interest that brought all co-authors of this manuscript together was a genuine interest of increasing the student experience and the constant drive to improve the outcomes of our teaching and learning practices.

Helen Egan

Helen Egan is a Reader in Health Psychology and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Amy Cook

Amy Cook is an Associate Professor at Birmingham City University, a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Head of the Department for Psychology.

Jagjeet Jutley-Neilson

Jagjeet Jutley-Neilson is the Director of Student Experience and Progression in Psychology at the University of Warwick is a Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Mark O’Hara

Mark O’Hara is the Associate Dean for the Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences (for Student Learning Experience & Quality Enhancement) and a national fellow of the Higher Education Academy.