WISE, Well-being Iniatives for Students in Europe – English Version

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.

Learn more about the project:

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.

Student life is an essential dimension of the strategy of higher education institutions. It is therefore recognized as complementary to academic learning. Recently, the Covid crisis has shown us the importance of the social, cultural and civic part of student life for the well-being of students. This project focuses specifically on student life as an important part of student well-being. By student life, we mean all the activities that make up the daily life of students. This includes classes, cultural activities on their campus, socializing, citizenship activities and volunteering on their campus, student dining, health services, and other facilities. There seems to be a need for universities and student organizations to act and cooperate better in order to improve student welfare and student life in Europe.

What’s new for student welfare?

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 will:

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.

To learn more about the project you can contact, Maria Ly, our European project manager at mly@animafac.net