A Multi-Year Study of First-Year Engineering Student Well-being at a Large Canadian University

A five-year study into student well-being at a large Canadian university is presented. Through weekly surveys tracking student well-being with the Short Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEBMWS), a gradual but persistent drop in student well-being over the academic year is consistently observed. Average well-being on WEBMWS over the five years corresponds to students feeling optimistic, useful, relaxed, etc. “some of the time,” and is consistent from year to year. Student rankings of key stressors each week reveal academics (high grades, workload, competitive program entry, and passing) dominate concerns, while stressors related to transitioning to first-year university are an order of magnitude less prevalent. Clear and statistically significant differences are noted between different student groups, with men tending to report better well-being than both women and non-binary students, with international students reporting slightly better well-being than Canadian students, and students with a mental disability reporting lower well-being than those without.