Student attrition is expected to be a funding metric under the government’s plan for allocating growth places – which makes reducing the rate undergraduates dropout at a big deal indeed. New research by Colin Jevons and Sophie Lindsay from Monash points to the factors that drive students who have survived first year to give it away (CMM April 20). And now online study support provider (and CMM advertiser) Studiosity has identified a big source of stress across UG courses across the country– academic workloads – making the case for investing in support to show undergrads how to get through their work.

Studiosity surveyed international and local students and found 66 per cent reporting high levels of psychological stress.  Some 34 per cent of them identified study load as a big cause, followed by the difficulty of their course at 15 per cent. In contrast, just 8 per cent worried about the study debt they are piling up.