Summary Study environments at Lund University ... - Lunds universitet

1Office of EvaluationSummaryStudy environments at Lund University – a psychosocialperspective 1BackgroundHow do students at Lund University experience their study environment? At therequest of the Working Committee for Equal Treatment of Students at LundUniversity, this question is addressed in this investigation, with the focus onpsycho-social aspects of the students’ study situation and study environment.Investigations of working life at Swedish universities and institutions of highereducation are normally directed to employees. Inspections of the systematic effortswith work environment at Lund University by the Swedish Work EnvironmentAuthority also adopt the perspectives of management and staff. In this investigationthe target group is undergraduates. Also the work environment for the studentsmust satisfy the requirements in the current legal framework for university staff 2 .The investigation of study environments encompasses psycho-social aspects at bothindividual and organizational levels. At the individual level questions include performancerequirements, study-achievements, future prospects; at the organizationallevel questions such as influence, study-climate, various aspects of collaborationand support functions. Questions, which are related to the application of the EqualTreatment of Students at Universities Act 3 , are crucial.The investigation of study environment addresses the following issues:• How do students experience their psycho-social study environment at LundUniversity?• Which forces, in the study environment, support and develop the individualstudent?• If any student has felt badly treated, in what situation has this occurred? Did thetreatment lead to feelings of offence?1 Nilsson Lindström, Margareta: Studiemiljöer vid Lunds universitet – en undersökning urett psykosocialt perspektiv. Report No 2005:236. Office of Evaluation, Lund University,Sweden. The summary is translated by Agneta Olerup, August 20062 In the Work Environment Act, http://www.av.se/english/legislation/legislation.shtm.Students are explicitly mentioned in chapter 1 §3, cf. also the guidelines for Students’Rights http://www.lu.se/o.o.i.s/832 at Lund University.3 The act was passed in 2001, and amended in 2003. An English version of the act can befound on the web-sites of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsmanhttp://www.jamombud.se/en, the Ombudsman against discriminations on grounds ofsexual orientation http://www.homo.se, the Disability ombudsman, http://www.ho.se

Work environment questions have been central in the student satisfaction surveyscarried out for each faculty at Lund University. Since the satisfaction surveysinclude questions brought up by the students at each faculty, questions about workenvironment are more or less prominent. The Student barometer 2000 4 and threerecent student satisfaction surveys 5 (in Humanities, Social Sciences and NaturalScience) include questions about weekly working time, benefits from and influenceon the studies as well as the physical work environment. These investigationsprovide an interesting reference material for this inquiry into study environments.2During the last years a number of investigations related to the Equal Treatment Acthave been carried out by the Office of Evaluation at Lund University 6 . The findingsfrom these investigations showed that students with disabilities as a rule weresatisfied with the facilities for support they have access to. On the other hand theyconsidered that the university, at central and departmental levels, should work morepreventively with regard to counteracting offensive and discriminating treatment inclass. According to an interview-study with homo- and bisexual students there isa compact standard of hetero-normativity within the university. Expressing adifferent sexual identity means that the student runs the risk of becoming excludedfrom the social community.Population and sampleThe population for this investigation consists of undergraduates who are registeredfor courses of at least 10 credit points (equivalent to 15 ECTS). From this population,of around 20 000 students, a random sample of 4000 students (about 20 % ofthe population) was taken. The sample includes students representing all facultiesor schools within Lund University. Slightly more than 2000 students (about 53% ofthe sample) participated in the investigation, but the response rates vary amongfaculties.Theoretical frame of referenceThe framework chosen to investigate the study environment has been adopted fromthe demand-control model (Karasek & Theorell 1990), which focuses on factors ofimportance for how specific individuals experience the psycho-social work situation.This model, which has been used as a theoretical frame of reference in severalstudies of work environment, is here applied to the students’ experiences of theuniversity environment 7 . Taking the variables psychological demands and decisionlatitude as starting points the model identifies four types of work situations: i.e. highstrain,low-strain, active and passive work. It is a characteristic of high-strain work4 Studentbarometer 2000, Report 2000:299, Office of Evaluation, contains a summary inEnglish5 Summaries of the Student satisfaction surveys are available, http://www.lu.se/evaluateng6 Undersökningar kring lagen om Likabehandling av studenter (Investigations around theEqual Treatment of Students Act), http://www.evaluat.lu.se7 The concept of psycho-social factors in the work environment is hard to delimit and mayinclude physical as well as social and organizational environmental factors. Also the conceptof study situation is elusive since it means an interchange between conditions withinand outside the studies. In this investigation the selection of psycho-social factors is foundedon interviews particularly with student representatives about psycho-social conditions inteaching and activities closely related to teaching.

that the individual experiences high psychological demands combined with littledecision latitude with regard to influencing the work process by oneself. It is aboveall this situation which in the end increases the risk for stress-related illnesses. Activework is also characterized by high psychological demand but this is combined withexperiences of having own action and decision latitude. Low psychological demandscombined with large influence over work means a low-strain work situation. Passivework is characterized by low psychological demands combined with little decisionlatitude and can be found, for example, in work at the conveyor belt.3Taking the theoretical model above as a starting point a questionnaire was prepared.From the questions about study situation and study environment five differentindexes were constructed. The index of psychological demands includes questionsabout weekly working time, workload in the studies, total workload, level of difficultyof the studies, previous knowledge required, study achievements and selfstudies.The index of decision latitude is composed of questions about the clarity ofrequirements on study achievements and information about the goal of the studyprogram or course, design, contents, literature, schedules, examination and assessment.In order to further elucidate the latitude-dimension this index is in the analysissupplemented with questions about influence on the contents of the studies as well asthe possibilities for planning one’s own time. To distinguish between aspects of timeand contents, control over and control in work, is essential with regard to the students’assessment of decision latitude. The lack of decision latitude is in studentsurveys often expressed as the lack of influence over the design and contents of thestudies.It is important to combine the demand-control model with the dimension of socialsupport (Karasek & Theorell 1990, Theorell 2003). Social support may act as abuffer with regard to alleviating effects of a high-strain situation. The socialsupport, including practical as well as emotional help, is related to persons in thestudy programme, in the family as well as among friends and acquaintances.Furthermore the students’ contacts with the various service-activities of the universityprovide part of the social network surrounding the individual student. Thesocial support is elucidated by two indices, i.e. support in teaching and supportfrom fellow students. The index on support in teaching is composed of questionsabout feedback during the course and in connection with examination, and to whatextent the study climate is characterized by appreciation and praise, a high degreeof freedom of opinion, being respectfully treated and receiving responses on studywork.The index on support from fellow students includes questions about to whatextent the study climate among fellow students is characterized by collaboration,security, solidarity, tolerance and respect.The students’ own assessment of the level of stress of the studies is provided by afifth index, the stress-index. This encompasses questions about to what extent thestudy requirements are stressing and to what extent the study environment ischaracterized by high achievement demands, exam nerves, competition and stress.This index has also been used as an indicator of the applicability of the demandcontrolmodel, in other words to what extent the other indices actually provide aninsight into how the psycho-social study situation and environment are shaping.

Findings and conclusionsThe highest study demands come from the students themselves. This is how themajority of the students in this investigation of the study environment describe theirstudies at Lund University. In second place the demands from the labour market areemphasized and only in third place the requirements of the education as they arecommunicated by teachers and supervisors. The investigation gives the picture ofthe existentially lonely student with high demands on him-/herself. A far-reachingindividualism often characterizes how students and university staff explain whysome students show signs of stress; they were overambitious and achievementorientedalready before they began their university studies. Thus problematizationoccurs primarily at the individual level. This investigation shows, however, thatthere are also reasons to look for explanations within the study environment of thevarious faculties of the university.4The students’ assessments of their study environment vary considerably amongstudy programmes. The study programme in Law has the highest proportion ofstudents experiencing a stressful study situation. High demands from the labourmarket of lawyers in combination with weak support from teachers and supervisorsare probably the primary reasons. An interesting comparison is provided by thedescriptions of the study situation at Malmö Academies of Performing Arts. Withinthe programmes of Art, Music and Theatre the study requirements are perceived asat least equally high, but there is a considerably smaller share of the studentsexperiencing the education as stressful. These programmes are characterized by thestrong support the students receive in class.Fairly high levels of psychological demands are also characteristic for the studysituation at Lund Institute of Technology (LTH), but the proportion of studentssuffering from stress are considerably fewer than within the study programme inLaw. An exception is the programme oriented towards Industrial Economics. As forthe rest of the engineering study programmes strain is compensated by a strongsupport among fellow students, at least for the majority of male students. Womenstudents report higher levels of study demands and higher strain. Within the studyprogrammes of Medicine and Care students also report high levels of demand,particularly within the programmes in Physiotherapy, Speech Pathology andTherapy as well as Medicine. For the majority within this area, as within LTH, ahigh level of support among fellow students is as a rule conducive towardsreducing levels of strain.Within the programmes at the Faculty of Science as well as at Lund UniversitySchool of Economics and Management (LUSEM) students as a rule assess thestudy demands as moderately high. A higher level of decision latitude is characteristicfor students in Natural Sciences. The Natural Science students also report thatthere is a well-functioning support among fellow students. All in all this probablycounteracts strain. Within the programmes at LUSEM the students’ experiences aredifferent. Above all female students experience the study situation as stressful.Students at LUSEM, just as the Law students, perceive above all the support fromteaching but also that among fellow students as weaker than students within otherprogrammes do.Within programmes in the Social Sciences, Humanities and Theology most studentsreport somewhat lower levels of demands and less strain in the study situation.Within the Social Science educations the students describe the study situation in the

programme of Master in Political Studies and in the subject of Media- and CommunicationStudies as slightly more stressful than do students in other SocialScience study programmes. The levels of stress are lower in Humanities andTheology. These educations are characterized by low levels of demands combinedwith fairly weak support from fellow students. An exception is female students inTheology who give the support among fellow students much higher marks thanmale students do. This support is an important buffer against strain. Most studentsin this investigation assess the possibilities for decision latitude as constrained andlimited. The information they have about the design and contents of the educationdoes not as a rule make it possible to make a time-oriented plan encompassing awhole semester. Another import aspect of control is the influence on the contents ofthe studies, which is perceived as constrained and limited. The students assess thesupport they receive during teaching as insufficient, for example in terms of feedbackduring the progress of the course and in connection with exams. In theStudentbarometer 2000 it was stated that it was problematic to take any measureswith regard to the students’ dissatisfaction with the response on study-achievements,since the university was in a situation of financial reductions. From afinancial perspective the situation is hardly less problematic today! The combinationof limited possibilities for decision latitude and support in teaching is howevera considerable risk-factor, according to the demand-control model for workenvironment analyses applied in this investigation. Despite this the majority ofstudents don’t experience their situation as particularly stressful. This is probablydue to the fact that they perceive the study demands as reasonable and that thesupport among fellow students is strong. Most students also give high marks to thetreatment they receive in class. According to the students’ judgments, the studentsin the Natural Science programmes and at the Malmö Academies of PerformingArts receive the best treatment. Within the Law programme and in some respectwithin LUSEM the treatment is given poorer marks. This may be connected withthat students in these educations assess both the support they receive in teachingand from fellow students as weaker than other students do.5An essential part of the investigation of study environments are issues related to theEqual Treatment of Students Act. The findings demonstrate that a fifth of the studentshave experienced being badly treated during their studies. The majority arewomen from academic backgrounds. They are a few years older than the average.The age-group 26-34 years has the highest proportion of students, who have beenbadly treated. They devote relatively more time to their studies and most of themhave achieved more than 80 credits (120 ECTS). Thus the students who havenegative experiences are as a rule women with high ambitions and with severalyears’ of experience in the university environment. Some students, more precisely6% of those participating in the investigation, have perceived the treatment as beingso bad that they have taken offence. This is equivalent to slightly more than 1000students in the population as a whole. The offending situations the studentsdescribe often indicate complex situations and relations in class. Only a smallnumber of cases have been judged as serious offences.Among the motives mentioned in the Equal Treatment of Students at UniversitiesAct gender is the most frequent reason for offensive actions. Most of the offendedstudents are female within traditionally male-dominated study programmes, forexample in the engineering area, but also in women dominated programmes asPsychology and Theology. Those who have experienced offence due to their ethnicbackground are somewhat overrepresented among students with a different ethnic

ackground than Swedish. Among those who have felt offended due to their sexualorientation only a few have described the situation they have been exposed to in theopen question of the questionnaire. This supports the findings from a previousinterview-study about homo- and bisexual students’ experiences of the silence ofthe heterosexual standard which surrounds the situation of these students 8 . Somedisabled students have experiences of limited accessibility to some educations andthe limited knowledge and out-of-date views on issues of disability among university-staff.These findings correspond with the findings in a previous investigation ofstudents with disabilities (Nilsson Lindström 2003). Among those who have feltoffended, however, half have provided other reasons than those brought up in thetext of the act, reasons such social background and age. Most common are, however,that the students refer to personal circumstances or characteristics as reasonsfor feeling uncomfortable at the university, such as personal style, views, unsatisfactorystudy achievements. Thus the treatment is considered as an individualproblem rather than as expression for negative treatment or discrimination directedtowards a specific group. This is clear not only from the causes for offencesindicated but also in the ways of handling an offending situation. The university’ssupport activities – such as the Student Health Service and the Services forStudents with Disabilities – are well-known and appreciated by many students, butmost who feel badly treated look for support outside the university, in the socialnetwork of family and friends. It is also a common strategy trying to avoid theperson or situation causing the offence. Few students make demands either on thoseresponsible for the education or on the central officials in charge of these issues.6How the study situation turns out is thus perceived by most students as mainly anindividual project. In order to moderate the students’ far-reaching individualizationof study-issues, this investigation has focussed on aspects of psychologicaldemands, decision latency and social support which are common to students withinspecific study programmes. More than 2000 students have participated, in additionto student representatives in reference groups. By sharing their experiences theyhave contributed with a rich foundation for the work with study environment ingeneral as well as for issues of equality and equal treatment in particular. From anequality perspective the main finding of the investigation is alarming: one out ofthree students experience their study situation as high-strained. Three quarters ofthose are women in study programmes.8 Största möjliga tystnad. Report No 2004:226, Office of Evaluation, Lund University