Dissertation First Due dates: on 3rd March for introduction and methodology draft submissionSecond Due dATE- 19th April for final submission 2. Arrangements for submission Your individualised...

Running head: DISSERTATION        1
DISSERTATION         3
DISSERTATION
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
Background of the Research    4
Research Aim    5
Research Questions    5
Significance of the Research    5-6
Literature Review    6-10
References (Research Rationales)    10
Research Methodology    10-11
Methods of Data Collection    11
Data    11-12
Ethical Considerations    13
Analytical Strategy    13-14
Analysis    15-24
Conclusion    24-27
Reflexivity    27-28
References    29-31
Introduction
The Corona Virus outbreak took a toll over the whole world in March 2020. From its epicentre being China, it spread to the European countries, the United States, the Middle Eastern and North African countries as well as the Eastern Asian ones. According to Batra, et al. (2021), the pandemic and the lockdown impacted almost every person in some way or the other. Both physical and mental health was affected. Children, school and college goers, office workers and elderly, all suffered for this pandemic. In the following, the effects of Covid-19 on the mental health of the college students will be discussed. Also, the aims and purposes of this dissertation will be thrown light upon. The corona outbreak has impacted the whole world among which the international students are one of the most prominent groups that were badly affected by the pandemic.
The Major university destinations for the international students including USA and the UK has more serious outbreak of the pandemic and several Strict guidelines and policies were formulated in order to combat the issue. The international students group were those who were not focused much and there problem was overlooked in the meanwhile. Several universities all around the world has adopted several preventive measures including the closing of campuses, cancelling offline classes and scheduling online classes, postponing the practicum’s. The universities were uncertain about the facts regarding when the scenario would be claimed to be normal. These certain disruptions due to the pandemic have exerted extra pressure on the lives of the student impacting their mental health and increasing the stress, anxiety and depression level in the students. For the international students adaptation of the new academic environment instantly was quite difficult as no one was initially ready for that.
Background of the Research
This research will give an outcome of the direct and indirect impacts of the corona virus outbreak and its effects on the mental health of college students. As said by Kumar and Nayar (2020), this pandemic came with a worldwide lockdown, which was imposed for more than three months and even more than that of six months in some countries, where situation was even serious. Due to the complete lockdowns, schools and colleges got closed. After complete shutdown for few months, colleges resumed their curriculums online. Due to this, the semesters and the examinations got delayed. The final year college students, who were about to sit for their placements, did not get any job. Their degrees were at stake. All these worries combined, affected their mental health severely.
Along with all these issues they were certain things that contributed in increasing the mental pressure of the international students. With the enactment of online exams the most important thing for the international students was to maintain the network availability so that they could not get disconnected due to the unavailability of network during the exam, which make them feel an extra pressure and tension as they were not used to all this. The students start getting anxious and frightened over the little mismanagement during their exams. The research focuses on every detailed aspect that increased the mental pressure of the international students during the pandemic.
The research focuses on the overall journey of the international students during the pandemic situation how they were among one of the sections who were most affected by the pandemic but were given least importance from the society as well as the media. The concern and the issues of the international students were not discussed much and neither was it considered important by the people. The international students were going through several kinds of mixed emotions that vigorously impacted their mental health during the pandemic situation.
Research Aim
    The aim of this research is to understand the experience faced by international students and its impact on their mental health at the University of Gloucestershire during Covid-19.
Research Questions
What are the mental health experiences of international students within the COVID-19 pandemic?
Significance of the Research
Mental health is a major issue in the 21st century and this pandemic has given wings to it. A bad mental health could impact the motivation, performance, concentration powers and social interaction of the students, which are extremely crucial factors to achieve degrees, learn and succeed in higher education. As said by Li, et al. (2021), a recent survey states that, almost 50% of college students all round the world are dealing with some sort of mental illness, due to this, sometimes, they are ending up committing suicide. There is also a stigma associated to mental illness in the society; hence, the students do not even gather the courage to talk about it openly, which affects their mental health severely.
    The pandemic has made the situation even worrisome. The college students have been worrying about their parent and loved ones, declining their concentration power, while studying and learning new things. COVID-19 has completely changed the lifestyle of human beings all across the globe. Quarantine has resulted in infection fears, frustration, boredom, inadequate supply of food and services, financial losses, job losses. Stigma and inadequate information, which leaded to even larger problems. The significance of this research is to find out the impacts, effects and outcomes on COVID on these student’s mental health and exactly, how it is impacting and also the different ways in which, further mental illness could be checked. The students in the abroad faced several fear including the fear of their future and fear of the pandemic. The students were very worried regarding their future prospects they were also eager to know when the situations would get back to normal all these combined was pressurizing and affecting their mental health.
Literature Review
Students do have fundamental knowledge about COVID transmission and its common symptoms. They generally tend to trust and use the official sources and thus, changed their behaviours that suited the public health recommendations (increased hand washing and mask wearing). However, they have also reported a number of difficulties and higher level of mental distress that they have faced while resuming their daily education. Higher level of depression resulted in lesser concentration in academic work. Higher level of anxiety and depression were found on the students, who inquired most about the information on COVID 19. Inability to focus on studies and a huge concern with the pandemic were more likely to be associated with higher levels of somatization. Female students had more stress than male. They even found it difficult to find proper medication of mental health amidst COVID (Burns, Dagnall & Holt, 2020).
    The novel corona virus (COVID 19) was first detected in Wuhan, China. Then it spread to Iran and Italy and then further west in the American continents, then all the way round to south and eastern Asia. The graph of COVID infections was growing rapidly. The healthcare organisations were failing to accommodate the infected patients at first. Later things anyway came in control. However, colleges and classes resumed over online platforms but it could not help in giving placements to the final year students. As said by Son, et al. (2020), the semesters and exams also got severely affected due to the pandemic. Sitting at home, during the pandemic and over thinking about the disease has severely affected the young college goers’ mental health. This also resulted in nausea, indigestion and loss of appetite, which again severely damaged their physical health over a period (Smith, 2017).
The international students find hard time coping with the pandemic as the lockdown was initiated for a limited period of time by the government in the initial days but looking at the widespread of the virus the lockdown extended. Most of the international students did not get the time to reach their hometown in the meanwhile and they were stuck at the same place where they are for their studies. Leaving far from the family in such conditions impacts the mental health of the students more vigorously as they feel caged at a place with no more people to interact with absorbing the loneliness (Phillippi & Lauderdale, 2018).
The international students being the sub section in the pandemic who are not focused much upon as no one is concerning the mental trauma they are facing as people are incorporated with the opinion that the young generation do not have any such kind of mental pressure and trauma. The international students find themselves helpless in the situation where they are incorporation with fewer resources, loneliness and a sheer uncertainty regarding when the things will get back to normal. The situation had become much more difficult and tough for the international students (Savage, 2020).
With so much personal issues the most uncertain thing that combined with the situation was the resume of classes on the online mode this was something that become extensively mandatory for every students. The international students have to resume their studies on the online mode which they are not quite much familiar of as they were used to the traditional offline method of studies. The students were facing several difficulties on co-operating their studies at the online mode (Sahu, 2020).
With the speed in the completion of modules the students were also bind to give the exam through the online mode which affected the mental health of the students vigorously. With the online mode of studies the network issue were the one of the most common problem faced by the students as the error in the network during any online exams or classes make the students furious and worried which indirectly impacts their mental health and they tend to lose their temper very instantly. The pressure of incorporating with the online mode and the increasing case of the COVID make the students more anxious towards their upcoming future. The uncertain conditions prevailing are affecting the mental health of the students like never before (Rajkumar, 2020).
One of the major things related with the pandemic was the slowdown of economy and the shutdown of the big companies. The international students had come way far from their hometown seeking a good placement and a brighter future but the economic slowdown and the current market condition has left the students in shock and uncertain regarding their future. The fear of the future condition is impacting the mental health of the students in the most negative ways. In almost every country the lockdown has led to the shutdown of several big brands and companies, the companies are firing their existing employees to cut down their expenses and even the companies are closing their hiring process seeking the market slow down which is traumatizing the international students mentally (Nurunnabi, Almusharraf & Aldeghaither, 2020).
The situations has become worse for the final year students as they were looking up for their placements but the pandemic has shattered their hopes as the companies are least interested in hiring the fresher’s concerning the situation which makes the students feel hopeless and they keep thinking about it over and over again, which is pressurising their minds. The fear of the future is one of the most haunting things the students are experiencing mentally (Cox & Brewster, 2020).
The worst part for the international students includes the facts that the airline services were stopped for a longer period of time. After the relaxation in the lockdown people were able to start the movement on the local places but due to the unavailability of the airline services the international students were not able to reach out to their respective homes. They were looking to carry on their online studies by living at their hometown but their hopes were shattered once again and they were bind to carry on their studies from the same place for a longer period of time till the country to country movement started (Bansal, Smith & Vaara, 2018).
This also impacted the mental health of the international students harshly as living far away from their family in such tough situation was making the things more obsolete for them. The students within the national region started to move to their respective homes after the upliftment of the lockdown but things were tighten up for the international students. They felt least heard as no one was giving much attention to the issues faced by them. The fear of the future, career and the loneliness all combined impacted the mental health of the international students and they have no one with whom they can share their conditions and trauma which was one of the most disheartening things (Lai, 2020).
With all these going on the certain COVID related policies enacted by the government were also adding in increasing the mental trauma for the international students. The government of almost each and every country has enacted several policies including the mandatory use of masks, hand sanitizers and the social distancing this works as an additive pressure to the mental health of the students. They thought that after the upliftment of the lockdown the things would get back to normal but the situation was quite opposite as the people have to follow the social distancing and several other policies and all these were imposed seeking their safety (Grubic, Badovinac & Johri, 2020).
Though the students were aware of the fact that all these were enacted combined for their safety but they did not feel ready to comply with all these rules and regulations. The students tend to feel depressed regarding the overall pressure they were going through (John, Pirkis, Gunnell, Appleby & Morrissey, 2020). There were increasing case of the anxiousness, loss of temper and depression among the students as they were among the least focused group by the media as well as the society (Ihm, Zhang, Vijfeijken & Waugh, 2021).
References (Research Rationales)
    The reason to conduct this research is to identify the impact on COVID 19 on the mental health of the international students and also it should come up with various measures to check further mental disturbances regarding the ongoing pandemic.
Research Methodology
The research method adopted is that of qualitative research cantered on exploring, descriptive and interpretative explanations of how people make sense of personal and social experiences (Smith, 2008). Qualitative research is involved in describing the essential properties of an entity (Smith, 2008). Barbour (2013) stated that qualitative research is not superior neither it is subordinate to quantitative research; both approaches offer remarkable unique knowledge. The current study utilized a qualitative approach of phenomenology as the ontology and critical realist as the epistemology. Phenomenology is a form of qualitative research that primarily focuses on the study of individual lived experiences within the world. It is considered one of the most important approaches in the qualitative research as it primarily helps in understanding the meaning of people’s lived experience.
A phenomenological study is used to explore what people experienced and focuses on their experience of phenomena. The primary objective of the phenomenology includes the direct investigation and description of phenomena (Hefferon & Gil-Rodriguez, 2011).
Ontology which is also one of the prime components in the qualitative research is concerned with the nature of reality. Ontology is considered as a system of belief that reflects an interpretation by an individual about what constitutes a fact. It helps in seeking the classification and explanation of entities. Ontology is concerned with the...