Findings: Working from Home

The move to a virtual campus has left many students in the position where they have had to rapidly establish work from home arrangements.

• 50% of participants had or were planning to spend their own money to set up an appropriate workspace at home. Many reported that their current workspaces were unsuitable, and some reported that they didn't have either the space or the money to create a suitable working environment.

• Students who could afford to set up spaces to work from home reported spending between $100 and $2000 to organise this. Many more participants raised the need for resources to set up such a space, but highlighted that cost was a barrier.

Many participants outlined how they were currently working from bed, a kitchen table, the floor or the couch. This work-from-home situation is more complicated in share house arrangements where participants discussed having to develop a roster to share the little available space for work. In addition, participants in residential colleges expressed they were living in fear of where they would go if the colleges closed.

“I did not have Internet at home before, but of course I had to get an Internet connection."

"I am working on my dining table, the Wi-Fi is slow and I don't have phone reception in my house."

“Limited space in a shared household; using dinning table to work"