Student organisations and the associations of Dutch universities of applied sciences and universities have made agreements on an approach aimed at the wellbeing of students in higher professional and academic education. For example, they want to reduce performance pressure by distributing examinations more evenly throughout the academic year. They also want to make students more resilient and strengthen their social ties, so that they feel more at home at their educational institution. The educational institutions will receive 15 million euros per year to implement their agreements. Dijkgraaf writes this in the letter to the House.
Student Wellbeing Programme
The educational institutions will receive expertise and support for their approach from the national Student Wellbeing Programme. The programme will also support the implementation of the existing Work Agenda for secondary vocational education. For example, a National Student Wellbeing Network for secondary vocational education professionals will be established. The programme will also organise annual working conferences. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science will allocate 1 million euros annually to the programme for the next five years. It will be housed at the Trimbos Institute.
Student resilience
“Stronger social ties contribute to students’ resilience,” says Neeltje van den Bedem of the Netherlands Youth Institute. “Social factors and factors in your environment play a role in resilience, such as how much support you receive, whether you have financial security, what you have experienced in the past and how you yourself respond to stress and stimuli. In his letter, the minister also acknowledges that students’ financial security is important for their wellbeing. We really need to do something about that.”
Freedom of choice in secondary vocational education
“Furthermore, it is good that the minister wants to examine how education is organised,” Van den Bedem continues. “For example, the periods of peak workload in the educational programme. Work is also being done to provide greater freedom of choice in secondary vocational education. This is necessary because students in secondary vocational education already have to choose at a young age which direction they want to take, while students in higher professional and academic education have more room to explore and discover what they want. Greater freedom of choice also enables secondary vocational education students to develop more broadly and explore new perspectives.”