Background: Statistics show that the number of received psychosocial counselling sessions remains at a constantly high level or has even increased since the COVID-19 pandemic situation in 2020. The objective of this work is to identify factors associated with students’ mental health to improve prevention and promotion in mental health at universities. Methods: The analyses were based on a cross-sectional data set collected by an online survey among 1,842 students from a German University of Applied Sciences in 2014. Descriptive statistics as well as nine different multiple linear regression models were calculated with IBM® SPSS® Statistics software. Mental health indicators used were mental health-related quality of life (mental HRQOL), depression, and anxiety, which were analysed in a gender-specific manner. Results: The analyses showed that the mean of the mental HRQOL score of the SF-36 for the student sample (46.68) was lower than the values for German (48.76) or American (51.34) norm samples. A key finding was the differences in mental health indicators between male and female students. Women reported worse mental health status in comparison to men. Female gender (ß of -.09; p < 0.01), age (ß of -1.05; p < 0.01), underweight (ß of -.09; p < 0.05), smoking (ß of -.10; p < 0.05) and drug consumption (ß of -.15; p < 0.001) were negatively associated with mental health indicators. In our sample, a moderate consumption of alcohol within the female population (ß of .12; p < 0.01) and physical activity within the male sample (ß of .09; p < 0.05) were positively associated with mental health indicators. Conclusion: The gender-specific differences of students’ mental health and its associations could be an important result for counselling services at universities to adjust methods according to gender. Contrary to the general societal perception, students have lower mental health than a norm sample even before the pandemic. Due to the additional mental stress caused by the pandemic, it can be assumed that mental health problems have increased even more. Universities should therefore pay more attention to the mental health of their students.

Nowadays, visibility is playing an increasingly important role in science communication. The topic is particularly significant for female experts, as their visibility not only inspires other women but also challenges gender stereotypes in academia. This article provides the first insights into the actual public visibility of scientific experts in Germany and presents potential factors that influence visibility. The analysis is based on the theoretical concept of doing visibility and identifies factors that influence the decision to increase visibility via social media. Our complex dataset comprises 139 experts (59 from computer science and 80 from social sciences), who took part in our online survey about visibility and personal information. Additionally, we tracked the respondent’s online footprint to ascertain their actual visibility in social media and press. The study reveals significant differences in creating visibility and the perception of visibility by sex and discipline. Computer scientists are more active on social media, while male social scientists are more visible in the press. Male computer scientists (57%) post their work on social media most frequently, followed by female computer scientists (35%), female social scientists (24%), and male social scientists (17%). Furthermore, the engagement on social media depends on the discipline, age, and media affinity of the experts. Overall, female experts gain less visibility on LinkedIn and in the press, although the gender differences in IT are smaller in this respect. Based on the results, we discuss potential reasons for the unequal distribution of visibility and suggest targeted interventions to close the gender visibility gap, such as (social) media or interview training. In addition, organisations and media representatives should be trained to actively contribute to breaking down gender stereotypes.