The High and Lows of Student Life – How a Well-being Course can Build a Feeling of Community

Abstract

Inspired by a growing focus on well-being among international universities and the implementation of well-being courses at e.g. Yale, Harvard, and Stanford, we at Copenhagen University (UCPH), the Faculty of SCIENCE have developed the well-being course “Take control of your study life”. The course is an extracurricular course and is built up of three workshop sessions – the students sign up for all three sessions. The themes for the sessions are: 1) Well-being and motivation 2) Pressure and overview 3) Priorities and balance The course is offered to students on all levels and not only first-year students. The student’s response to the course has led to discussions on changing the course to a mandatory course for all first-year students at SCIENCE. The overall feedback we have gotten from our students has been astonishment that the elements of the course have helped them and made them feel normal and recognized in all the different emotions they experience as students. Furthermore, they have been surprised that the course is not mandatory for all students. “Take control of your study life” will be the pivot point of the workshop. And the main questions to be discussed will be the pros and cons of making a course like this a mandatory first-year seminar for first-year students. During the workshop the participants will gain insights on: • How to facilitate a feeling of ‘we’ as community and belonging for both first-year students and students in general. • How to support students’ well-being and their knowledge of how to build a balanced student life. • How to translate theory about well-being and the good student life into concrete practice for students. The methods of the workshop will be a mix talks and practice for the participants and short presentations on: • “Take control of your student life” including the course structure, the target group, and the reasons behind. • The theoretical base of the course and how it’s being implemented in practice. • The methods used at the course to build and facilitate both the process of change for the individual students and a feeling of community among the students. The ambition of the workshop is to inspire the participants to consider how a similar course at their universities could spark better beginnings for students, create a feeling of community among the students and a shared experience of the high and lows of a student life.

Key take aways

You will gain insights on: - How to facilitate a feeling of ‘we’ as a community for both first-year students and students in general. - How to support students' well-being and a balanced student life. - How to translate theory about well-being into concrete practice for students. - Pros and cons of a mandatory well-being first-year seminar.

Presenters

Marie Brogaard, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Line Ellemann-Jensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

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