Practices 2.2 – Strengthening Student Resilience
Student Well-Being & Mental Health
Samantha Werthen & Sofie Giets, LUCA School of Arts
Going beyond the counseling room! High-impact, creative actions on campus
Discover how we transformed student mental health through high-impact, creative preventive actions. Mirroring the creative spirit of our students, we stepped beyond our comfort zones to develop these unconventional preventive actions. These pop-up campus events reach students in their daily environment on very recognizable topics
Dr Lorraine Tansey, Student Volunteer Irerland Programme Manager & Riona Hughes, University of Galway
E-Module Training for Skills and Resilience of Student Volunteers
Thousands of students volunteer on campus through student activities. This presentation will introduce the purpose, structure, and impact of our e-Module Suite, funded through the Irish Higher Education Authority, to equip students with essential transferable skills, such as communication, teamwork, and leadership. We also aim to strengthen their resilience and capacity to navigate challenges in volunteering‑based roles. The session will highlight the pedagogical design of the modules, including interactive elements, reflective tasks, and real-world volunteer scenarios that encourage learners to connect theory with practice.
The presentation will also demonstrate how the module suite supports higher education institutions in fostering meaningful engagement, enabling students to prepare for volunteering experiences with greater confidence and self-awareness. It will showcase the alignment of the training with wider national goals in higher education, including student success, civic engagement, and the development of graduate attributes.
In addition, the presentation will discuss implementation strategies, examples of student feedback, and opportunities for collaboration across universities, volunteer organisations, and student support teams. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how the e‑module can be integrated into existing programmes, how it enhances the student volunteer journey, and why resilience and skill-building are central to sustaining impactful student-led community engagement.
Anne-Marie Desmet, Student Services, LUCA School of Arts, Gent
Tackling procrastination for better mental health
Addressing procrastination is essential for student well-being and academic success, reducing levels of anxiety, depression, burnout, and higher dropout rates. By implementing simple, strategic interventions, we can protect students effectively from burnout and psychological stress. Let’s focus on some small and simple interventions that help students build resilience.
Avoidance plays an enforcing role in all mental health issues. It erodes self-efficacy, and leads to psychological decline. Academic procrastination is a manifestation of avoidance, it is a precursor to anxiety and depression.
Students often present with depressive symptoms or loss of motivation, without recognizing the underlying pattern of procrastination.
Left unaddressed, this cycle fosters insecurity and strains relationships with faculty and peers. Students may erroneously doubt their chosen field of study or misattribute their struggles.
Seeing and addressing the link with their symptoms and procrastination through targeted psychoeducation offers both clarity and hope.
By illuminating these patterns, we can facilitate reintegration through simple, strategic interventions: we empower students to achieve successes, so that the y can rebuild trust in their own capabilities and re-establish vital connections with their academic community.
The outcomes are often transformative: students regain their confidence, restore their interpersonal relationships, and reclaim their academic journey.
In this presentation we dive into some simple strategies to reactivate students, bringing the problem back to what it is: a habit that can be changed.
Lore De Keersmaecker, Psycho-educational trainer & workshop leader at Odisee College
Informing students about mental health in preventive, accessible ways
In this workshop, I will provide an overview of the learning paths, webinars, online/live sessions, and handouts that we have already developed to proactively address the mental well-being of our students. I will show you our website, as well as an animated video about fear of failure, for example. I will also discuss how we try to tailor this as effectively as possible to our student target group, which is becoming increasingly diverse (internationals, lifelong education, academic and professional bachelors, masters, multicultural…). I will also briefly explain how we join forces with external organizations such as the City of Ghent, for example during the annual “Boost your mood” week. Afterwards, I will zoom in on the challenges we still face and I would like to take some time to brainstorm together on how we can optimize this offer and reach students even better.