More than 200 students registered for this year's Study Environment Day in 2022 on Campus Aalborg, which was a record number of participants compared to previous years.

Well-being in focus

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The theme for the Study Environment Day was student well-being, which after two years with corona seems to be especially important to students.

The day was designed to give the students new and concrete knowledge and tools to work with their well-being at the studio. Through presentations and workshops, they could, among other things, get answers to questions such as:

• How do you maintain a healthy balance between studying and the rest of your life?
• How do you avoid pressure turning into stress?
• How do you maintain motivation in both headwinds and headwinds?
• How do you handle differences and disagreements in the study group?
• How do you learn about your behavioral patterns and how can that knowledge strengthen your group work?

Presentations, workshops and Idéa Café

The day began with a welcome from representatives from the Student Environment Council, followed by a presentation of what AAU Study and well-being guidance and student study counselors can help AAU's students with.

Afterwards, an adviser from Studenterrådgivningen gave the presentation 'How to become the perfect student - a showdown with unrealistic expectations at university'. The aim of the presentation was to deal with the narrative that exists in every education about 'the perfect student' (also known as 'the implicit student'). This is a story that a great many students take to heart, and as a consequence, a correspondingly many students experience that it is a story that is very difficult to live up to. And although it is created by both political agendas, study structure, etc., it unfortunately often ends up with many students being left alone with the feeling that "it's probably me who's not good enough". The point of the presentation was therefore to make it clear that students should not strive for such an ideal. In addition, participants were introduced to how to understand and overcome the burdensome and often untrue notions of what it means to be a good student.

Subsequently, the participants could opt in to up to two out of four different workshops related to 'student well-being'. Here they could, among other things, learn more about well-being according to group work, learn to become aware of their personal stress pattern and get concrete tools to prevent stress and thrive under pressure, as well as acquire concrete tools to develop their mindset and motivation as well as building good study techniques.

Alternatively, the participants could stay in the Idéa Café, where in a lounge environment and in the scent of the popcorn machine they could spar with fellow students or staff about their good ideas for how we can together create an even better student life at AAU. The many good inputs from the Idécaféen have been passed on to the relevant players at AAU.

End with a focus on the social

After the professional program, pizza and soft drinks were served to all the participants. Afterwards, chips, nuts and sweets were handed out, while the owner of the board game café Dice n' Drinks provided approx. 30 different board games, which the participants could challenge both known and unknown fellow students in. This was a pleasant end, where the many remaining participants emphasized the good atmosphere that had characterized the day.

Great satisfaction with Study Environment Day 2022

The participants' evaluation of the Study Environment Day 2022 shows that there was generally great satisfaction with the day. 96 percent of the participating students were 'very satisfied' or 'satisfied' with today's setting and content. The evaluation also shows that several students particularly expressed that it was good to be able to put into words some of the challenges they experience. According to the evaluation, the participants experienced that the Study Environment Day created some good frameworks and concrete tools for engaging in dialogue about well-being and dissatisfaction.

Many of the participants were also confirmed on the day that there are many who share the same challenges in relation to well-being and dissatisfaction at the studio. This can also be seen in the evaluation, where several have expressed that it was nice for them to know that they are not alone in having a difficult time.

You can read the article about Study Environment Day 2022 on Campus Aalborg here.