Student must feel more at home on campus, better help with emotional problems | Interior

In the middle of the corona crisis, at the beginning of 2021, it emerged that half of the students (51 percent) experienced psychological complaints such as anxiety and gloom, of whom 12 percent experienced a serious degree, even a death wish. In the aftermath of the crisis, the percentage of students with complaints remained high, partly because of the study pressure. This pressure increased partly due to the student loan system and the binding study advice. In addition, there has been great concern for years about the use of alcohol and drugs among students.

Last year it was agreed that the education umbrella organizations Association of Universities of Applied Sciences and Universities of the Netherlands and student organizations ISO and LSVb would join forces to make agreements about better student welfare. These are now in place and are supported by the Ministry of Education.

The first condition is that students feel safe and at home at a college or university and are in contact with themselves and others. Taboos are discussed and institutions are called upon to provide suitable facilities for students that contribute to ‘an optimal and inclusive study climate’. Consider, for example, gender-neutral toilets and quiet rooms. The support for (mental) problems will be much more about ‘what do you need’ instead of ‘what do you have’. Social safety and combating discrimination are important.

In addition, the institutions will make every effort to combat stress arising from education. But learning how to deal with work and performance pressure is also a way of supporting students. Examples include: the way deadlines are planned, reducing the emphasis on excellence and communicating about financial support opportunities.

It is also the intention that colleges and universities offer teaching staff the opportunity to acquire skills with which they can contribute to student well-being. This can be done, for example, by training teachers in identifying and referring students with issues. Finally, the institutions will maintain ‘appropriate’ contacts with other educational institutions, municipalities, general practitioners, addiction care and mental health care. In this way a smooth referral to professional help can take place.

ISO president Demi Janssen: ,,Mental health is essential for students to develop. The National Student Welfare Framework lays the foundation on which universities of applied sciences and universities can build further. We hope that they will tackle the problem at its core and give student welfare a real priority.”

Education Minister Robbert Dijkgraaf allocates 15 million euros annually to enable the approach at universities of applied sciences and universities. The worrying research figures are ‘very dear to Dijkgraaf’, he writes in a letter to parliament on Tuesday. “I want student welfare to improve. That is why I am taking measures together with institutions and students to reduce the pressure to perform and to make students more resilient. Only then will we fully utilize the power of education.”

Education should ‘not be a high-pressure boiler, but a decompression chamber’, according to the Minister for Education. That is why the Minister has already focused on ‘more peace, space and security for students’ in the past period. For example, the basic grant will be reintroduced to students from colleges and universities, the supplementary grant will be available to a larger group of students and the use of the supplementary grant will be improved. Minister Dijkgraaf also wants to relax the binding study advice.