Vaccine Hesitancy

Alumni supported research into vaccine uptake and hesitancy published

A cross-disciplinary team of researchers have published findings into a study of vaccine uptake and hesitancy amongst University of Leicester students. The publication comes as the result of collaboration between the researchers, a final year medical student and support from alumni donations facilitated by the Alumni Association Committee.

Beginning in 2021, the researchers surveyed University of Leicester first-year and foundation students’ attitudes towards vaccines, what factors influenced their trust and uptake of vaccines and their knowledge and interest in vaccination opportunities on campus. The surveys were conducted in two phases throughout 2021, and showed how attitudes developed in real-time as the COVID-19 vaccine rollout programme took place nationally.

While vaccine hesitancy reflected a relatively low percentage of those surveyed, the study did show this level of hesitancy did not decrease as more students received their COVID-19 vaccinations. This increase in uptake without a decrease in hesitancy suggested that a lack of confidence in vaccines could be overridden by convenience and other reasons for taking up of COVID-19 vaccines in hesitant individuals. Findings from general vaccine hesitancy questions suggest ethnicity played a key role in hesitancy (with Black, Asian and Mixed heritage participants being less likely than White participants to fall into the high-willingness group for vaccinations). Specific survey questions indicated that representation of participant’s ethnic group in clinical trials were key concerns that led to hesitancy.

Other findings noted that while pop-up COVID-19 vaccination centres on campus were underused, nearly one fifth of students said pop-ups would increase their likelihood to get vaccinated for both COVID-19 and other diseases such as meningitis. Survey responses also indicated that students favoured traditional media, Government and NHS sources and scientific journals for their information about vaccines, with social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok rated as less reliable sources of information.

Professor Chris Bayliss, who works in the University's Division of Microbiology and Infection within the School of Biological and Biomedical Science, said "Understanding student attitudes to vaccines and the best ways for students to access vaccines is important to protection university students from infectious diseases. Our study helps to inform universities and government health agencies on how to approach ongoing problems, such as measles and meningitis, but also to prepare for future pandemics."

You can read the researchers’ article Association of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among University Students with Concerns About the Plurality of Testing Regimes (Kekere Ekun et al., 2026) online in the journal COVID.

The final write-up for this research was made possible through collaboration with the Alumni Association Committee and a current medical student, Aisha Kekere-Ekun.

The Alumni Association Committee is a group of alumni volunteers who represent the interests of the wider University of Leicester alumni community. Each year, they work with the Advancement Office to disburse funds from the Convocation Fund, an endowment established with alumni donations. It was through one such disbursement in 2021 that the research team were able to conduct the study into vaccine uptake and hesitancy, as well as fund the subsequent write-up for publication.

Martin Cullen (Law LLB, 2006), Chair of the Alumni Association Committee, said “Projects like this are a great example of the impact the Convocation Fund can have - in this example helping today's students and researchers to tackle the questions that matter most to public health. I am proud that the Alumni Association have helped bring this important work to publication, and that a current medical student (and future member of our alumni community!) was involved.”

Aisha was offered a research associate role to work alongside the research team in writing-up the vaccine uptake and hesitancy study for publication. Commenting on this opportunity, Aisha said “It was very insightful working with data collected from University of Leicester students and exploring attitudes and trends within the student population. I hope there will be more student-focused projects like this in the future to provide a greater understanding of public health issues and help guide how the university and other organisations can improve interventions to support better health outcomes among students.”

Five years since the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, our understanding of the attitudes towards vaccines in student populations is as important as ever. Recent events have shown the devastation that an outbreak of disease can have for students, their families, their University communities and beyond.

Our hope is that such research as that done at Leicester can help shape policy and prevention, and provide an insight into the attitudes towards vaccines of the next generation.