Although 60 percent of the EUR students feel satisfied with their life and 70 percent feel at home at their University, between 50 to 70 percent of the students do suffer from higher than normal stress, anxiety and depression levels and severe loneliness. This is the outcome of the first EUR Student Wellbeing Monitor in which around 10% of the EUR students participated. The survey was launched in December 2020 to capture a snapshot of students’ general health, wellbeing and academic success. Nearly 4000 students completed the questionnaires, implying that some degree of selection bias cannot be excluded.
The results do raise some serious concerns on the wellbeing of students. The EUR Executive Board wants to use the National Program for Education (Nationaal Programma Onderwijs, NPO) funds in the coming period to promote student wellbeing. Furthermore, extra measures had already been taken with respect to student wellbeing i.e. providing extra e mental health coaching and campaign weeks to raise awareness on student wellbeing.
"The main conclusion of this Student Wellbeing Monitor is that a substantial proportion of the surveyed students experience high levels of stress and mental problems. The Executive Board wants to use the NPO-budget to bring fruitful ideas into practice"
Frank van der Duijn Schouten
Rector Magnificus of Erasmus University Rotterdam
Reinforcing student wellbeing at EUR
Given the results of the Monitor and the fact that student wellbeing is in the NPO “menu”, the EUR Student Wellbeing program team recently held focus groups with students, lecturers, and study advisors from each faculty, as well as with the EUR student support service team. These resulted in fruitful ideas to promote wellbeing. The ideas are currently being worked out with the faculties and support services and include, among others, strengthening the chain of student support (including shortening the waiting time for student psychologists and creating a sense of belonging), setting up a clear central information point for students (online and offline) focused on wellbeing and personal development and organizing trainings for employees about students’ wellbeing and personal development. Some plans are already covered by the EUR Student Wellbeing program, such as the online ‘Are you OK out there?’ platform currently being renewed. The other plans can be added to the program via the NPO. The integration of the results evidenced by the EUR Student Wellbeing Monitor with the ideas and plans derived from the focus groups do enable the EUR to take important steps in the promotion of student wellbeing and support of students’ personal development.
Important to keep monitoring
Since this is the first assessment wave of the EUR Student Wellbeing Monitor, conclusions on student wellbeing prior to the pandemic cannot be drawn, nor on how it has developed. Nevertheless, other national and international studies have shown a downward pattern in anxiety and depression among students during the pandemic, with this age group experiencing more mental problems than younger adolescents. The respondents indicated high study pressure and lack of social interaction and motivation as main sources of stress. In addition, personal problems, daily obligations, and financial future play a role. Certain sub-groups seem to experience more problems than others, but in-depth analyses are still running. The next survey will be launched in October 2021 and annually thereafter.
View the full report
- More information
National Program Education
To limit the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and research, the NPO was set up by the Dutch government. To address the current needs of students on a short notice, EUR will deploy the extra means to improve student wellbeing and to enable the faculties to deploy the available funds as soon as possible and in a targeted manner.
- Related content
