WHO-5 wellbeing survey
Learn more about the WHO-5 survey, how to take part and what the results will be used for.
Your wellbeing is a key priority for us here at NTU, and we want to support you in looking after your mental and physical health.
As part of our ongoing commitment to this, we’re hosting the WHO-5 survey to find out more about our students’ wellbeing over the course of the academic year.
FAQs about WHO-5
What is WHO-5?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has developed a short self-reported measure of current mental wellbeing called the WHO-5 index.
NTU is using this structure and question set to create our own survey.
Who can take part?
Over the 2024/25 academic year, undergraduate and postgraduate taught students will be invited to take part in this survey.
First years will receive the survey in October, as we recognise the extra challenges associated with starting at university.
What do I need to do?
All you need to do is answer the multiple-choice questions in the WHO-5 survey. The questions are simple reflections about your life in the last two weeks. These answers give a sense of your overall wellbeing.
You’ll rate your feelings on a scale from ‘at no time’ to ‘all the time.’
There are no right or wrong answers. You will be asked to respond honestly based on how you have been feeling recently. All responses are confidential.
The survey will be open to complete for a period of 14 days, after which the link will become deactivated.
How long will it take?
The survey will take no longer than two minutes to complete.
Who is running the survey?
The survey will be run by the NTU Wellbeing Analytics project team. This includes colleagues from our Student Support, Digital Technologies, Senior Academic Leadership and Marketing teams.
Will my answers be anonymous and confidential?
Your answers will be treated as highly confidential and will only be seen by the project team.
Nobody who teaches or supports your learning will be able to see the answers you give. We will store the data securely, confidentially and for the shortest possible time.
Before the end of the academic year, all the data will be completely anonymised, and it will be impossible for the even the project team to identify you.
What happens with the results?
Your answers will be used in two ways.
- we will send a personalised email to you about the information and support available at NTU.
- we will use your answers to help us develop more personalised communication for all students. This involves:
- Analysing all students’ answers
- We will then add data that you have already given us and some data from your studies this year
- We will use machine learning to develop a large-scale model to help us send useful information to students in subsequent years.
All the data gathered in this process will only be used to improve support for students.
Is the survey compulsory?
Your participation is purely voluntary. If you don’t want to complete the survey for any reason you can simply close the browser, and your answers will be deleted. You do not have to give a reason for terminating the survey.
How can I withdraw my answers?
If you’d like to withdraw your data from the survey, please let us know within two weeks of completing the survey.
Otherwise, your responses may have already been used to inform associated outputs of the project.
There will be no adverse consequences arising if you exercise the right to withdraw.