Student Mental Health Project

The students' health and well-being survey (SHOT) from 2018 (Knapstad et al., 2018) showed that students experience significant mental illness. Mental health problems have also increased compared to previously collected data in 2010.

The data in the survey are based on full-time students under the age of 35 with Norwegian citizenship, including Norwegian students abroad. The challenges that are highlighted in these surveys show that students are struggling, which probably affects fellow students and the learning situation in the classrooms, and can contribute to weakening learning outcomes.

The Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo has allocated funds to investigate students' mental health, which will later be used to create interventions to improve the learning environment and well-being of students.

The Department of Psychology, UiO, is part of the European master's program on diversity and inclusion, called Global Minds (https://global-minds.eu/society). Students in this master's program come from different countries around the world, and study in 2 to 4 different countries during their studies. Each cohort includes 30-40 students, and where approx. 17 of them are at UiO in the spring semester. Similar to the SHOT survey, we have seen several mental health problems in these Global Minds (GM) students in recent semesters. In addition, Global Minds students experience a number of additional strains related to their academic mobility.

We want to obtain information from the students about their mental health and their experiences with the study program and the university. We want to collect this information by means of a survey that will reach local master's students at PSI, as well as all Global Minds students (at UiO, Lisbon University Institute, University of Limerick and University of Social Sciences and Humanities Warsaw). We also want to conduct interviews with local and international master's students.