THE IMPACT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ WELL-BEING AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: A Systematic Literature Review

Students’ well-being is considered an important factor in learning and academic performance while at the same time vulnerable to any unfavourable situations or external influencing elements that may make or mar it. Considering the endemic nature of the COVID-19 and the overwhelming associated social restrictions measures, students’ well-being may have been impacted during the pandemic period. Thus, this study aims to examine the current literature addressing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on university students, particularly focusing on students’ well-being and academic performance, answering to the following research questions: what are the variables that shape students' well-being specifically in the current education literature discussing COVID-19? What are the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the university students’ well-being? The methodology used to approach this topic was a Systematic Literature Review. For the review, I used eight databases as data source: Scopus, ProQuest Central, Web of Science, PubMed Central, OECD iLibrary, ERIC – Education Resources Information Centre, and ScienceDirect as well as Tampere University online library (Andor database). The titles, abstracts and full articles were screened using Rayyan software to extract data. Twenty-eight studies with a sample size of 50,236 students met inclusion criteria and were finally assessed. The Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) scale was used as a quality appraisal tool for the risk of bias assessment of the selected studies. The results indicated university students suffered from the social isolation and other disruptions in the study routine resulting on lower levels of well-being and poor academic performance. The social isolation and disruptions in study routine caused negative physical, affective, cognitive, economic and social transformations. I recommend enhancing emotional intelligence among educational stakeholders to enable them respond to students’ probable post-COVID-19 needs conscientiously.