Students’ own resources and motivation, both of which affect ability to study, have improved among higher education students since the COVID-19 years. Two-thirds of students report feeling enthusiastic about studying. This enthusiasm has grown by 9 percentage points during the past three years. At the same time, study exhaustion has fallen by 7 percentage points, although 35 per cent of students still experience it.
The findings are from the Finnish Student Health Survey (KOTT) conducted by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) during spring 2024. A total of 3,600 students aged 18 to 34 from higher education institutions across Finland participated in the survey.
The results of a student health survey conducted by the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) also indicate that students felt their ability to study had improved since the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past four years students felt they had gained a better grip on their studies and were more confident about staying healthy.
This shows that health has an effect on students’ ability to study. According to the results of the KOTT survey the number of diagnosed neuropsychiatric disorders in higher education students has doubled in three years. The FSHS has also found that the number of students seeking diagnostic investigations for neuropsychiatric disorders is much higher than before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Number of student health meetings doubled
According to the results of the KOTT survey, the need for KELA’s rehabilitation services has increased among higher education students. About a fifth of students feel they need rehabilitation services. FSHS figures show that it arranged nearly twice as many student health meetings in 2024 as the year before. Student health meetings are gatherings where the student, a representative of the educational institute concerned and a FSHS professional take time to assess the supportive measures needed to ensure the student’s ability to study and to proceed with their studies. The FSHS took part in 472 student health meetings in 2024.
“Both the increase in the number of students seeking help to assess the reasons for their study difficulties and the increase in the number of student health meetings may indicate that students are more active in wanting to find out the underlying causes of their study difficulties. It’s good that students know how to seek help instead of facing their study challenges alone”, says FSHS Student Community Work Coordinator Jonna Kekäläinen.
“We‘ve seen that the most important factors that maintain enthusiasm for studying are the support of the university in promoting studies and the student’s integration into the university community. These are easy ways of maintaining ability to study, while helping students to proceed with their studies and be in good health when they graduate”, says Kekäläinen.
Source
THL reports (thl.fi, in Finnish)
Additional information for media
Jonna Kekäläinen
Student Community Work Coordinator
FSHS
phone 041 730 8491
firstname.lastname@yths.fi
Valtteri Pohjola
Researcher
THL
phone 029 524 7665
firstname.lastname@thl.fi