10 UNITE STUDENTS | APPLICANT INDEX SURVEY | 2022 BACK T O T H EMES THEMATIC ANALYSIS - WELLBEING For this theme, we have additionally used the ONS standard wellbeing indicators: four questions that are used by the Office for National Statistics and others to assess the wellbeing of a group, or of the whole population. The questions in full are: ■ Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? ■ Overall, to what extent do you feel that the things you do in your life are worthwhile? ■ Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday? ■ Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday? The standard way to present responses to these questions is to report the percentage who select either of the two highest categories for the first three questions. For the question about anxiety, the percentage who select either of the two lowest categories is reported, representing the proportion who feel a low level of anxiety. Therefore, a higher score for the group being surveyed indicates a higher level of wellbeing in each case. Figure 6 : ONS Wellbeing Indicator scores over time 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Life satisfaction ONS Wellbeing Measures Life worthwhile Happiness Low anxiety ■ 2019 ■ 2021 ■ 2022 One benefit of using these measures is the ability to compare scores over time, using scores gathered from previous applicant cohorts by the Unite Students Applicant Survey 2021, and the Unite Students / Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) applicant report The New Realists in 2019. This analysis reveals a small but consistent decline across all the four indicators, with a particularly sharp decline in those reporting the lowest levels of anxiety. This is consistent with the high level of self-reported anxiety within the cohort (see below). In all cases, the scores for this year’s applicants are within two percentage points of the scores recorded for the student population in the Advance HE-HEPI Student Academic Experience Survey (May 2022). Given that the applicant scores were consistently higher than the Advance HE-HEPI Report student scores last year, this is a cause for concern and may be an early indicator of further drops in the student scores next year. LGB+ and Trans+ students, international students, care experienced and estranged students and students with a disability had poorer scores across this theme as a whole, which is reflected in a lower index score for Wellbeing. CONTINUE