Abstract

Predicting students’ challenges and problems underscores the critical proximity factors that affect students’ mental health and well-being. Recognizing students as the prime stakeholders in higher education institutions (HEIs), it is almost obligatory for HEIs to mandate quantitative assessment of prospective stressors experienced by their students. Four of the major stressors that may potentially delimit students’ academic performance, productivity, and longevity in a public HEI are financial struggles, environmental setbacks, and physical and mental pressures. These stressors can go haywire and disable the natural ability of students to excel. It is therefore imperative to quantitatively analyze these stressors to suppress their implicit strike, simultaneously activating the inherent abilities of these prime stakeholders. This study utilized the descriptive quantitative approach to survey the different challenges perceived by higher education students in the Philippines, using a content-and-face validated close-ended questionnaire. Frequency and percentage were used to analyze the perceived eco-social challenges experienced by the students. Using the Mann Whitney U, the differences between male and female problems were computed. Spearman Rho was calculated to extrapolate the connection between socioeconomic status and the challenges faced by learners. Families of many students were found to be highly challenged financially and physically. They also experience moderate environmental and mental challenges. Females seemed to be more stressed than males. Poor students tend to experience greater financial, environmental, and mental problems. Appropriate mechanisms must be employed to help students overcome these challenges they experience in the university.