How is the well-being of our students actually doing? At the end of 2019, Dr Danielle Remmerswaal, Associate Professor of clinical psychology at ESSB (Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences), accepted the role of academic lead on a student well-being programme. Shortly after she started, the corona crisis broke out. There is more fear and stress than usual among students, she says, but there are also solutions.
What do you do exactly?
"Along with Dr Boffo, I am the academic leader of a large student welfare project. We started by mapping the situation. We asked students and their advisors: what problems exist and what do students need? Just when we started, the corona crisis began. In the same period, our team was bolstered by the addition of five new employees: Dr Rianne van der Zanden as programme manager and Tajda Laure, Camila Villegas, Djameela Dulloo and Dr Robin Eijlers as researchers."
What is the goal of the project?
"All kinds of support for student welfare is available within the faculties but it is sometimes hard to find. So we want to create a clear care chain within the university, for all students. We focus on: prevention; timely identification of problems; offering support and referral if necessary. The ultimate goal is to strengthen the well-being of students. Our vision is that studying successfully does not only mean getting high grades, or similarly typical metrics of successful studies, but is also about other things such as personal growth or resilience."
And, how are our students doing?
"In 2020, the first Student Wellbeing Monitor was launched and was completed by approximately 10% of all EUR students. The results show that many students are struggling. A striking finding is that there are many complaints of anxiety, affecting around 70% of the students. In addition, almost half of the students show moderate to severe mood complaints and almost 70% of the participating students experience a higher than normal stress level. The most frequently mentioned cause is 'study stress'. Loneliness also plays a role. This is logical: the life of students is normally much more social than it was last year. But even before Covid, loneliness increased stress and anxiety played a role for some students."
The student monitor will run for the next three years during the first months of each academic year. Its purpose is to gather information on the general health and well-being of students over the years, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We see that many students are having a hard time now"
What kind of support does EUR offer?
"Firstly, we want to lower the threshold for seeking help. There are already quite a few services on offer. One of the things we have set up is the Student Wellbeing Platform (internal link on MyEUR). Here, students can find information, tips and initiatives. We now have the digital version of the Living Room (until it is allowed to open again). We also organise Student Wellbeing Weeks twice a year. And we offer e-coaching for all EUR students; students can request professional online coaching with psychologist Siggy (Mentaal Beter, internal link on MyEUR)."
"In the first few weeks we received more than 100 requests for talks. We also started a cooperation with the student chat line Frisse Gedachtes (internal link on MyEUR). You can use this line if you feel the challenges of student life or if you just want to talk to someone. We are also working with e-health specialists and designers to design digital tools to help students strengthen their resilience and stress management skills."
"There is help and support for all students!"
And what can we do to improve the situation - and the welfare of students?
"We believe it is important for the EUR to make the change from study-success to student-success: it is not only about academic success, but also about personal development and well-being. At the university, we see an enormously high performance pressure and perfectionism among students. But I would say: also give yourself time to work on personal growth and resilience. That will benefit you for the rest of your life. And it is important that we remove the shame surrounding the theme of anxiety or stress. We want everyone to know: there really is help. You don't have to have a serious anxiety disorder to ask for help. Anyone can have a bad week or a bad month, or suffer from a corona crisis. There is help and support for all students. Make use of it!"
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Our strategy leaves room for everyone to contribute to positive social impact. Where necessary, we set up new projects to achieve our goals. View our page From strategy to practice for more information about our Strategy 2024.
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