International COVID-19 Student Well-being study

The COVID-19 outbreak had a huge impact on university life. Many students may experience stress because of the measures that were implemented by the government and/or university/college. The outbreak perhaps also had a significant impact on your life (where you live, who you are able to meet in real life, how you can make a living, etc.).

About the study

This survey is a part of an international study. The Norwegian study is a cooperation between NTNU – the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and OsloMet – Oslo Metropolitan University who have joint data management responsibility. Researchers from both institutions will have access to all collected personal information. Resarcher outside NTNU and OsloMet will only have access to anonymized data. Data are collected from this survey and from the student-administrative systems at NTNU and OsloMet (FS).

The results from this study are relevant to your university/college because it can feedback information on how to organize potential future lockdowns. Because this survey is conducted in multiple countries, we will also be able to access the impact of national policy on well-being and health in the student population.

You have the right to withdraw your personal data from the survey and the non-response analysis at any time. Your identity and participation in this study will be treated strictly confidential.

Processing of personal data

To reduce the number of questions, we will link your survey responses to administrative data on study programs, courses, age, gender, admission points and exam results up to three years after the survey. No directly identifying personal information will be included in the data available to the project team.

After linking the survey to the administrative data, the linkage key will be kept at the Norwegian centre for research data (NSD) and only used for updating the administrative data. The administrative data will also enable us to analyse and correct for non-response. This is important in order to avoid biased data and to increase data quality, and is legally justified by the project's public interest. The non-response analysis data will not be connected to interview data, it will only contain information about our students age, gender, study program, topics, admission points and grades spring 2020.

You have the right to withdraw your personal data from the survey and the non-response analysis at any time. The project will end in March 2024. After this date, anonymous data will be stored at the NSD. You have the right to complain to the Data Protection Authorities (Datatilsynet) if you think that the project violates your privacy.