Well-being over the academic year

“The labour market receives burnt-out graduates”

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News article

Half of technology students are concerned about their own well-being, says the latest student survey conducted by TEK. Students working towards their bachelor's degrees were more concerned than master's students. As first aid, TEK offers a peer support chat service.

51 % of technology students felt that they had been concerned about their own well-being several times or constantly during 2021. Only 15 % of respondents said that they had not worried about their well-being at all.

I am already completely burnt out and I'm still a student. After graduation (if I ever even graduate) I will be looking at years of fixed-term employment without holidays. How is anyone supposed to come out of this completely sane and healthy?
- Bachelor's student, TEK’s student survey 2021

– The coping difficulties of students are extremely worrying. We take great care to choose the best students in the country, and then the labour market receives graduates who are already tired and burnt out, says TEK’s CEO Jari Jokinen.

The figures have risen over the three-year reference period. In 2020, 43 % of technology students worried about their well-being when in 2019 this share was 41 %. The last figure shows the situation was dire even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The overall well-being of technology students has worsened over the same reference period. While 70 % of students considered their overall well-being to be good or very good in 2019, this share had dropped to only 56 % in 2021.

– The results of the 2021 student survey were expectedly, and depressingly, even worse that the results of 2020, which means that there is a clear downward trend, says TEK’s Research Manager Susanna Bairoh.

Well-being over the academic year
Well-being over the academic year (source: TEK’s student surveys from 2019, 2020 and 2021)

Bachelor's students are more concerned about their well-being

Bachelor's students were more concerned about their well-being than master's students. 56 % of students working towards their bachelor's degree experienced worry either frequently or constantly. The same figure for master's students was 47 %. Half of the respondents to the survey were completing their bachelor's degree and half were working on their master's.

– Bachelor's students are more concerned about their well-being than before, even the men. Among master's students, women are clearly more concerned about their well-being than men, says Bairoh.

Uplifting messages are not enough

– Students feel that their problems are only addressed with supportive messages. Words are no longer enough. We want to be a part of the solution to this problem, says TEK’s Membership Officer Anniina Pokki.

Until the end of March, TEK is offering a free-of-charge chat service where students can discuss their worries anonymously with a trained peer volunteer. The chat is produced by Nyyti ry, an association that promotes student mental health, with TEK’s donated funds as part of the mielenTEKoja project.

About the survey

TEK conducts an annual student survey of its student members. The latest survey garnered responses from 3 260 students and the response rate was 18 %. The anonymous web survey was open in September 2021.

More info in English at the bottom of this page