When 'the best time of your life' is lonely
Real student life can start again, but do students still know how? The number of burnouts, depression and suicides among students is increasing alarmingly. While their well-being was already a cause for concern before the pandemic.
Nikki van Amerom is in the last year of her studies in business administration at Avans University of Applied Sciences in Breda. The enthusiastic student also seized on all initiatives to improve education. For example, she is chair of the program committee and a member of the participation council. But lately she finds it more difficult to find the motivation. “Like many other students, I'm quite through it,” she says.
“Previously it was easier to get over such a dip because I had something to hold on to the structure and the fellow students at school. It is now looking for a connection. Even my internship had to be done from home. I have fallen behind due to an operation, but I miss a future perspective: why should I still do my best?”
I miss a future perspective: why should I even do my best?
Her situation typifies that of many students. Instead of enjoying 'the time of their lives' full of parties, freedom and cheerfulness, everything for students came to a standstill for almost two years. The implications for their mental well-being are staggering. As it turns out recent figures of the Trimbos Institute that half of the students experience feelings of anxiety and depression, the vast majority feel lonely and exhausted and more than a quarter have sometimes or more often had a death wish.
Picture: Type tank
Trimbos conducted the survey among 28 thousand students last spring, during the third corona wave. The number of suicides among young people up to the age of thirty has risen by 15 percent, to an average of 22 per month.
The big question is how higher education will turn the tide. Mental pressure and psychological complaints among students are not new and led to the establishment of the National Network Student Welfare Higher education.
The network focuses on knowledge sharing so that educational institutions can learn from each other. For example, Fontys Hogescholen introduced the Student Welfare Action Plan three years ago in response to signals about increasing pressure to perform. “Students mentioned a number of causes,” recalls Esther Tonnaer, student coaching consultant at Fontys. “In addition to a disproportionate distribution of the study load and the loan system, they also put a lot of pressure on themselves to meet expectations.”
fraternization
Students also indicated that they are not so quick to seek help on their own. The university of applied sciences subsequently launched the online platform Fontys Helpt, where students can now quickly see who they can turn to for help. With the 'start thermometer', freshmen can 'measure' how they are doing after the first term. Tonnaer: “Every student has a student coach who is the first point of contact. If problems are more complex, they can refer them to, for example, a student counselor or psychologist.”
The pandemic has resulted in an exaggeration of existing complaints, Tonnaer sees. “Stress, anxiety and motivation problems have increased a lot. Teachers are worried and try to keep a conversation going in all kinds of ways, but that is quite difficult. What is positive is that everyone is actively seeking that connection, which results in fraternization between students and lecturers.”
That differs per study program and year, knows Jasmijn Veraart, third-year student of social studies teacher training and member of the participation council at Fontys in Tilburg. She was able to get a taste of student life for a while before corona struck. “Our training is quite small and we got to know each other well, which makes a big difference. It will be different for the years after us,” she says.
Many students are struggling with arrears, their student debt is increasing and they have no money to borrow for another year
“Sitting at home for two years is very intense, the loneliness is great. I feel good mentally, but a lot of people have become depressed. The pressure is now even higher than before, because many students are struggling with arrears and their student debt is rising. I heard that the waiting time at the student psychologist is two months, that is really too long.”
Extra opportunities
She mainly sees solutions in adjusting the loan system and binding study advice in the first year. Veraart: “Students should be given extra opportunities to pass a subject. The pressure really needs to come down. In addition, more money is needed for student psychologists, for example.”
That there is a waiting period for the student psychologist is correct, but it is a bit more nuanced, responds Esther Tonnaer. “We take a good look at what each student needs. If that is a referral to the student psychologist, we will see how we can bridge the waiting time. The coach can also play a role in this."
"In case of high psychological distress, such as a threat of suicide, we immediately refer externally. We have now recruited an extra student psychologist, but we also see that the chain in regular care is getting stuck. The GP refers back to the student psychologist because students may be more likely to be helped.”
We have now recruited an extra student psychologist
Tonnaer is also concerned about the after-effects of the pandemic. Action plan 2.0 has now been drawn up that focuses on further professionalization of teachers and coaches. “Once measures are over, students will have to deal with the delay or loss they have experienced. We are alert to this, keep the lines short and seek the connection. We cannot rule out everything, which is why we call on students to make it a topic for discussion themselves.”
Kompas
To increase self-management among students, Avans University of Applied Sciences launched a well-being app a few weeks ago. This allows students to monitor their self-confidence, sleep rhythm, stress or motivation, for example.
“We want to make students co-owner of their personal development, just as they are of their professional development, and preferably connect the two,” explains Jessica Nooij, policy researcher and data scientist at Avans. “We hope that it will become just as normal for a student to mood of its own. check if your numbers. And that because of this, someone realizes very early that things are not going so well and that they have to send out a signal.”
Picture: Type tank
Based on the answers, the app offers relevant help: from a breathing exercise, a fear of failure training module to a referral to a coach or study advisor. Eight hundred of the 35 students are using the app after two weeks. Nooij is satisfied with this number. “We are still at the beginning. We will take four years to further develop the app and integrate it properly into education.”
We hope that it will become just as normal for a student to ask you mood of its own. to check if your numbers
For Avans, the well-being app provides a source of information about which problems are at play and which students. The university of applied sciences can adjust the policy accordingly with specific training or by adjusting the schedule.
“The app is a kind of mental compass for the student, but also for the rest of our welfare policy,” says Nooij, who emphasizes that privacy is guaranteed. “Everything is anonymized. Students do not create personal profiles and data is only shared if they give permission for this. This also gives students control over their own development.”
Perfectionism
Business administration student Nikki van Amerom applauds the development of the app and contributed to it herself. “The app offers tailor-made advice, which I think is very good. It is a tool through which you get to know and improve yourself. For example, I found it surprising that it came out that I suffer from exam stress. The app then asks in-depth questions to determine the source of the tension. As a result, I know that my stress is more due to my perfectionism than to not having learned properly. There are videos that give you knowledge about this and I could bring this up in a conversation with the coach.”
She thinks she'll get over her slump on her own, otherwise she won't hesitate to seek help. She would like to see Avans also appoint student psychologists. “I think that the threshold for students with psychological complaints is lower to start a conversation if there is a psychologist at school.”
Happiness
At Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Enschede, Mirjam Spitholt, teacher of economics and happiness, is taking a different tack. For over twenty years she has been teaching students not to identify with their thoughts. “For example, you are not depressed, but you have depressive thoughts. Underneath is always your wholeness and the trick is to learn to see that.”
According to Spitholt you can train that insight by increasing your awareness (see also tips in box). She always did that with students 'disguised as an economist', but that became official twelve years ago with the subject of happiness that she developed herself as part of the minor Conscious business. “How can you do good business if you don't know who you essentially are? So we're going to find out," she explains. “For example, 70 percent of what you think is negative. You can't change those thoughts, but you can choose whether to entertain them or not."
You can't change thoughts, but you can choose whether to entertain them or not
"If you have a conflict with your boss, you can have a whole netflix series make it: he just doesn't like you and whatever you try, it will never work out, for example. If you are aware of these thoughts, you can look at them from a distance and make a different choice. You can then ask yourself, for example, what you can learn from the situation. Life is then like shooting, we use the negatives to develop.”
This is not to say that there is no suffering. She invited many students who almost died during the lockdown at her home or for a walk. “I think that's part of my job as a teacher. And make no mistake, I'm not always happy either. If my son has a serious accident, I panic too. But somewhere in the background there's a deep confidence that I can handle this and that it won't get in the way of my happiness. I think it is extremely important to explain to students how the human system works, so that they can experience life in a lighter way in every situation," says the teacher, who also provides many training courses at other schools.
I found out that I was very preoccupied with the future and was afraid that things would fail
Sophie Matthijssen is studying fashion & design at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam and took Spitholt's minor. According to her, traveling between Amsterdam and Enschede was more than worth it. “I learned a lot from it. I found that I was very preoccupied with the future and afraid that things would fail. At Fashion & Design, the pressure to perform is high and I have been given few tools to deal with this properly. I can honestly say that the minor has made me happier. I can be happy with what I have and where I am now, I can put things into perspective better and see fewer bears on the road. This really should be taught in every school.”
Picture: Type tank
Well-being is under pressure everywhere
In other educational sectors too, students struggle with mental complaints and motivational problems. For example, research by the Laks student association among 120 students shows that a third gave their own well-being an insufficient level when strict measures were in place. Half of them indicated that they were depressed and two-thirds experienced a lot of stress and pressure to perform. The Dutch Youth Health Center has created a free lesson series to help teachers strengthen the mental health of their students. For more information, see: ncj.nl
This article is from the March Education Magazine. Do you want to stay informed of everything that is going on in education? Join the AOb and receive the Education magazine every month.
