Samenvatting

There has been a rise in stress-related complaints among students in The Netherlands. Although the situation seemed to stabilize, over the past year the situation has worsened. This dissertation was written to find out the current situation for European Studies students at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, and depending on the situation, write a fitting recommendation on how to reduce stress levels and improve the situation. After studying three reports conducted by other organisations and institutions, it was concluded that the stressors could be categorized into four main factors: academic pressure, financial pressure, additional activities, and interpersonal factors.
To obtain information on what the current situation is at European Studies, a questionnaire was created that has been completed by 109 European Studies students. Information that was either unobtainable through the questionnaire or research, was collected through two interviews with Dave van Ginhoven, senior lecturer, and Fee Romein, employee of the Onderwijs, Kennis en Communicatie (Education, Knowledge and Communication) (OKC) department at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Key findings point out that students do feel pressure at the programme. This is mainly due to a lack of sufficient guidance or support, as students perceive help received to be more result-driven instead of problem-oriented. Furthermore, students felt pressure regarding finishing assignments, performance during exams, and graduating without delay. The next main category includes financial pressure. Important findings in this section include the stress experienced as a result of the implementation of the loan system, marginal compensations for internships, and the necessity to work to cover costs of living. Additional activities proved not to be an impactful stressor compared to the other three factors. Most activities were connected to personal or team exercise and student associations, with the latter consuming most time and causing the most stress. The last factor, interpersonal issues, appears to be an important stressor amongst students who have experienced personal or family related issues.
The proposed recommendations, in order of most to least feasible, included: (1) start surveying student wellbeing within the European Studies programme, (2) improve on the existing communication framework of the programme, (3) improve mutual expectation management between students, teachers, and the university, (4) investigate the possibilities of training teachers to recognize concerning behaviour, (5) research the possibility of providing students with more opportunities to obtain working experience, and finally (6) examine the complexity of the programme and reduce the workload.

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