Practical ways to support university students with long Covid

This video covers:

02:44 What are the symptoms of long Covid?

03:47 What educators can do to support their students with long Covid

05:58 Other accommodations to make classrooms more inclusive and accessible

Hello, my name is Anne McConway. I am a teacher, a lecturer and an advocate for the charity Long Covid Kids. I wanted to make this short video to give lecturers an insight into the different things that they can do to support their students who are struggling with long Covid.

I know from first-hand experience how disabling and life-changing it can be to lose your health to a Covid infection. Long Covid is now a recognised disability. It’s an umbrella term for a wide variety of health problems which are all caused by Covid infections. The fact that no two long Covid sufferers will have the same symptoms makes understanding the condition and offering support more challenging. But given that recent estimates suggest that one in 10 adults are now struggling with long-term health issues after a Covid infection, it’s not something we can continue to ignore.

The impact it’s having on the student population is likely to be underestimated. One recent study of undergraduate students published in March 2025 found that 40 per cent of the students in their sample reported cognitive impairment due to a Covid infection. The researchers also found ongoing, observable, distinct neuropathogenic mechanisms in many of the students, which was affecting their executive functioning – patterns which are usually seen in people who are four decades older.

The World Health Organization have recently warned us that every Covid infection we contract carries with it a 6 per cent chance of not fully recovering and that anyone can be affected by long Covid. So, taking action will reduce the ongoing risk that we all face.

Although many who develop long Covid sadly do not fully regain their health, some people do see incremental improvements to their health over time.

The message I’d like to convey here is that we need to take action to support those students who want to continue with their studies and are able to do so. If they develop long Covid, they shouldn’t feel that they’ve got no choice but to drop out of education due to a lack of support and understanding.

Long Covid is a very unpredictable disease and there are very few approved treatment options available to people. It’s also widely misunderstood and misdiagnosed by medical professionals because medical training about this relatively new condition is simply not keeping up with the medical research. This can leave long Covid sufferers feeling vulnerable and in need of support.

So, what post-Covid symptoms might your learners be dealing with? Some of the problems they might be experiencing are heart palpitations, dizziness, joint and muscle pain, migraines, memory problems, confusion, difficulty word-finding, chest pains, insomnia, hair loss, tinnitus, hearing loss, breathing difficulties, temperature control issues, gastrointestinal problems, organ damage, persistent cough, pins and needles, blurred vision, new allergies, shingles, reduced cerebral blood flow, a condition called POTS [postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome] is very common, post-Covid diabetes, post-Covid coeliac disease, blood clots, loss of taste and smell, loss of mobility, exercise intolerance, burning sensations, low or high blood pressure, rapid heart rate, fainting and stress intolerance. This is not an exhaustive list. There are many other symptoms.

So, what can you do? I have put together some of my own ideas and also the suggestions I received from students who are in the online long Covid community. I’ve created a poster to give top tips on how you could help your students who are living with long Covid. I’ve called it the long Covid wish list. I know it might not be possible for you to offer everything on this list, but I wanted to share all of the potential adjustments which would be offered in an ideal world.

The first thing to consider is that those who have already experienced post-Covid health issues are usually keen to avoid situations where there is a high risk of them being reinfected. Poorly ventilated classrooms with lots of people in are inherently high-risk environments, so if you can reduce the risk of reinfection in the physical classroom, those students are more likely to attend.

You can do this by monitoring and improving the indoor air quality. Use a CO2 monitor, a carbon dioxide monitor. Try and keep it at or below 800 parts per million. Consider investing in a HEPA air-filtration unit, which removes viral particles from the air that you’re breathing, and open the windows and the doors to let in fresh air, which disperses any exhaled viral particles. This, of course, reduces the risk of infection for everyone in the room, so that’s a win-win.

You can also ask that everybody in the group tests for Covid if they’re not well and doesn't attend in person if they’re not very well or if they’re Covid positive.

Another way to support your students who’ve got long Covid is to create a positive, mask-friendly environment for all learners. Wearing effective face masks greatly reduces the risk of infection, but it can be really hard to be the only person wearing a face mask in the room, so showing your support for students who want to protect themselves and others by wearing a face mask will mean a lot.

You could also consider wearing an effective face mask yourself in tutorials, which would make the environment safer because two-way masking is more effective than one-way masking.

In relation to the other accommodations which might help make teaching and learning more inclusive and accessible, obviously this is going to vary from person to person and individual needs will need to be discussed with each student.

Having said that, we’ve got a list here of potential adjustments which might help, which include making sure classrooms are wheelchair-accessible, being understanding if learners can’t always attend in person, being understanding if students can’t manage full sessions, offering online tutorials, asynchronous course materials, a flexible timetable, offering somewhere to lie down if needed, providing a low-stress, low-stimulation environment, offering alternative assessment options, providing shortened, accessible course materials and signposting to existing support services.

A key thing to understand about living with long Covid is that for many people, not all, their symptoms can be exacerbated by physical and mental exertion. This means that your student could be continuously trying to balance the amount of activity they can safely manage without overdoing it and causing a flare of symptoms.

Most healthy people have roughly 10 usable hours per day to do things. This number of usable hours in the day can be greatly reduced for people who are living with long Covid. You simply being aware of this daily balancing act that your students are trying to manage will help you to support them.

Avoid pushing them beyond what they can manage, and be aware that what they can do one day they might not be able to cope with on another day. The fluctuating nature of long Covid is a very frustrating way to live your life, so empathy and support is what will help the most.

If your student is still trying to continue with their studies whilst also dealing with long Covid, you can rest assured that there is no question mark over their commitment and dedication. I can assure you that if you take the time to put some or all of these things in place for your students, it will mean the world to them.

Alongside the physical symptoms, the emotional impact of long Covid is immense. The loss of identity that comes from suddenly being unable to work, drive, socialise, exercise or even walk up a set of stairs is frightening and isolating. Making the effort to provide these simple adjustments for your students so that they can continue with their education will make a huge difference.

So please do consider doing whatever you can to provide a safer learning environment for all of your students by offering these accommodations.

Thank you for listening.

Anne McConway is a lecturer in early childhood development and learning at CU Coventry, which is part of the Coventry University Group, and an advocate for the charity Long Covid Kids.