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Advancing skills and well-being in Higher Education through a policy proposal from European Student Assembly 2025

The opportunity cost of ignoring a student’s mental well-being to fare better academic results, has led to the resurfacing of the debate over academic pressure and its negative implications on life quality 1. Given that the philosophy underpinning the higher education system hinges upon the core tenets of knowledge, truth, critical thinking and culture, which reflect the epistemological and ethical obligations of universities 2, our working group has identified a structural weakness in the prevailing HEIs educational climate. Prior to delving into the content of our policy recommendation, we deem it essential to articulate the definition of academic pressure within the context of this proposal. The reason for this is that gaining a more profound understanding of academic pressure leads to a more effective policy design that responds to the policy addressees’ more tacit needs 3. Anchoring academic pressure in both the extant scholarly literature and the lived experiences of youth, it is conceptualized as the manifestation of adverse emotional and psychological states concerning potential negative academic outcomes 4. With this in mind, our problem statement highlights the extent to which academic pressure affects the wellbeing of students across countries members of the European Union.

 

One of the findings that shaped the authoring of our policy proposal was that approximately one third of students from EUROSTUDENT countries have reported experiencing mental health issues, with depression and anxiety disorders being the most frequently cited ones 5. While the contemporary understanding of students’ wellbeing is heavily influenced by narrow biomedical constructs and frameworks within the discipline of psychology 6, our group’s dynamics offer the potential of an interdisciplinary approach. Since one of our group members is a graduate student at the Business Administration field, some of the major stressors pertaining to the said academic environment include the fragmentation of instructional styles, the excessive workload and time constraints in accomplishing the assigned tasks 7. Similarly, another teammate who is an undergraduate student within the STEM discipline, asserts that the current mental health support system is lagging behind the intensely competitive classroom climate and exclusionary logic of STEM curricula 8. Equally alarming is the form that distress takes for our group member who is a Political Science student and has ascertained that unreasonably strict teaching staff coupled with exams and other forms of assignments that even disrupt their sleep schedule, are some of the reasons why university life is associated with deteriorating mental health 9. Considering the multiple facets of academic pressure, we treated the preparatory and final stages of the European Student Assembly as a political arena for advancing the ideal of a more wellness centered education.

 

In order to develop an evidence-based policy recommendation that would strengthen the role of mental well-being within the European educational setting and through intervening at the institutional level 10, the guidelines we received from the organising committee and the input from other panels’ participants contributed to the relevance of the proposal. Building upon the existing advisory schemes, our group suggested the permanent establishment of mentoring programmes at higher education institutions with the synergistic backing of Erasmus+, European Education Area and national education ministries, since the informal exchange of knowledge is crucial for students’ academic success and emotional health and particularly for those belonging to underrepresented groups 11. Moreover, implementing more inclusive assessment strategies, such as standards-based grading, various learning styles are taken into consideration and reduced anxiety is observed, especially in students within the neurodivergence spectrum 12. In a similar manner, expanding the SI-PASS peer-assisted learning model, there is an untapped potential to improve student performance, reduce absenteeism and lower dropout rates 13 through collaborative and gamification mediated educational experiences 14. Moving on to the challenge that hospitalized students face, our team regards asynchronous learning and trauma-informed care trained educators as indispensable in the effort to safeguard their academic continuity and well-being 15. Adopting a critical stance towards our policy proposal and experience of the European Student Assembly both digitally and physically at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, there is a consensus that our interactions with students, organisers and policymakers equipped us with skills that are tremendously useful in this development phase of our civic participation and academic future. Striving for systemic reform in the HEIs of the European Union member states, we regard the alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 that advocates for equitable and high-quality education as a key step in tracking the progress of the aspired change 16. This is why the upcoming World Youth Skills Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly and observed annually on 15 July, which this year centres on youth empowerment through Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital competencies 17, was perceived as an opportunity to communicate the value of the European Student Assembly as a space where skill development and civic engagement are revolutionized. 

 

Author: Maria Kalaridi

Contributors: Ana Maria Mihai, Dimitra Bekiraki

Panel 1, Group 8 

European Student Assembly 2025

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