Brazil had the highest percentage saying their mental health suffered, at 76%, followed closely by the United States (75%), Canada (73%) and the United Kingdom (70%).

At 25%, Italy had the lowest number of students who said their mental health had suffered, followed by Russia (29%), China (38%) and South Korea (39%). Kenya, the only African country among the 21 countries in the survey, mirrored the global average with 56%.

According to Lila Thomas, the head of Chegg, between 20 October and 10 November 2020, her company had commissioned Yonder Consulting Limited, the London-based market research and opinion polling firm to undertake a survey on the lives, hopes and fears of university students around the world in the age of COVID and beyond.

As Thomas pointed out, Chegg’s survey appears more like a scorecard that details obstacles and challenges that the current university undergraduate student population is going through in their universities and countries during and probably after the COVID-19 pandemic.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel in that, despite mounting learning challenges and pressures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and by widening economic disparities, 56% of the students surveyed still felt optimistic and ready for future challenges in the years ahead.

Furthermore, the ‘equal access’ to an academic education and career that women have enjoyed for the past years has not thus far led to ‘equal outcome’ in terms of leadership and academic positions, pay, research and publications in a higher education setting, according to a new report.

The increased participation of women in educational systems has also not translated “clearly or consistently” into labour market success or higher socio-economic status, the report says.

The outcome gender gap is also related to broader conditions of employment and labour – part-time vs full-time, permanent vs temporary contracts, etc – says the report Women in Higher Education: Has the female advantage put an end to gender inequalities, published by the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) on this year’s International Women’s Day.

The report documents that “there is a dearth of women at the top” and “among academic teachers and researchers”. Women are over-represented among teaching staff at lower educational levels, but their presence drops in tertiary education. In 2018, 43% of teachers in tertiary education were women compared to 66% and 54% in primary and secondary education, respectively. In 2020, just 30% of the world’s university researchers were women.

Only a few are at the top: just 18% of public universities in Latin America have women rectors. According to the European University Association, 15% of rectors of member universities across 48 countries are female, compared to 85% male. Twenty countries do not have any female rectors.