WISE project : well-being of students in Europe
What is the place of well-being in a student’s life? How is wellness considered by higher education institutions? By student organizations? In order to better understand the issues of student well-being in Europe, Animafac and 6 other European partners are working together within the WISE Well-Being Innovations for Students in Europe project.
Context
Many people in higher education suffer from ill-being, as shown by several studies and research. Certain groups of students are particularly vulnerable to ill-being problems. Indeed, some groups already face discrimination (e.g. refugees, people with disabilities). Since the beginning of the year 2020, the health crisis has had a strong impact on students’ well-being (almost no student life, need to adapt to new learning methods, integration difficulties, significant deterioration of mental health, etc.). Moreover, new forms of malaise are emerging, such as eco-anxiety, which affects more than 50% of young people (The Lancet survey, 2021). The well-being of students is therefore a major challenge for higher education institutions. It is also a challenge for student organizations acting in favor of their peers, who are increasingly taking up this issue.
The Well-being Innovations for Students in Europe (WISE) project
In this context, the WISE project focuses on student well-being in European higher education. The project aims to identify what is important for student well-being. It also looks for ways in which universities and student organizations can act within student life policies to promote well-being. Over the 3 years of the project, the consortium wants to:
- Develop expertise to better understand the issues around student well-being in student life: quantitative and qualitative research and reports;
- Increase resources and training to help higher education institutions and student organizations to consider and act on student well-being in student life: vade mecum, toolkits, training;
- Strengthen proposals and communications to promote well-being and student life as essential components in Europe.
7 partners are involved in this project:
3 student networks: Animafac (a network of student associations in France); the European University Foundation (EUF, a university network based in Luxembourg); the European Students’ Union (ESU, a network of student associations, based in Belgium) ;
- 4 universities across Europe: Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra in Portugal; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece; Transilvania University of Brașov in Romania; Charles University of Prague in Czech Republic
Study about the students well-being in Europe
A quantitative report based on three surveys addressed to students, student organisations and HEIs aiming at identifying what’s at stake for students and HEIs and other institutions across Europe has been done
Coordinated by the Transilvania University of Brasov and Animafac, with the support of the consortium, the report outlines the results of the European WISE surveys. It interrogated students and HEIs about mental health, focusing especially on actions taken to improve students’ well being. The main aim of the study is to identify the factors of well-beingamong students regarding its different components. More specifically, we aimed to:
● Measure student well-being in different countries and compare their level of well-beingaccording to different criteria (eg. gender, living situation, disability, etc.)
● Identify their opinions about the importance of well-being in daily life, by analysing severalaspects of student life, such as activities for the development of well-being, andconnections inside and outside the university.
● Analyse the impact of the sense of belonging and attachment to a specific university onwell-being.
● Identify possible worries and anxiety generated by macrosocial events which could affectstudent well-being.
A synthesis of the report was published (attached)
Link to the project : https://www.animafac.net/wise-well-being-iniatives-for-students-in-europe-english-version/
