Posted in February 2021

Creating Positive Impact Through Wellbeing Assessments

In creating a new approach to wellbeing assessment at TU Delft, we didn’t just want to measure needs, we wanted to help the university do something about those needs. So, what kind of real-world changes have now taken place?  After presenting to the university board of directors, we are happy to share several top-down policy changes. There have also been many smaller-scale community initiatives; for instance, this instagram campaign for supporting student home environments.

For both students and staff, new wellbeing resources have been created or revised. Student counselling services have now developed better guidance on how to seek mental care help on campus. The gym center developed an initiative to help students to have a collective physical start to the day. As our qualitative results revealed the special challenges for graduating students, a new pilot is helping support a weekly student wellbeing check-in for these students. And, on the staff side, resources have been provided to improve the home office. Finally, the university now has a policy to gather wellbeing data from students and staff on a quarterly schedule.

We will continue to listen — and do our best to translate wellbeing needs into community action.

 

December 2020 Wellbeing Results

We’ve now completed our December 2020 assessment of students and staff wellbeing. Although the student and staff survey included different items, there were aligned enough to make concrete comparisons. The following chart shows some of the differences in response between students and staff. In a future post, we will show how some of these items compared to results in June, 2020.

Selection of Questions 

December, 2020 

English

Students

Dutch

Students

English Staff Dutch Staff
Number of Respondents 776 2351 425 1183
LIFE SATISFACTION 5.5 6.1 6.0 6.6
SATISFACTION WORKING FROM HOME 5.7 5.7 5.8 6.4
I am happy with how I am performing in my studies 26% 58%
I often feel disconnected from my family 39% 14% 37% 15%
I’m part of a student association 18% 43%
I feel like I belong at TU Delft 23% 47% 29% 48%
I often feel like I don’t have anyone to talk to 36% 13% 23% 12%
I often feel lonely 56% 34% 39% 21%
Overall, I felt good about my exercise levels 28% 49% 38% 50%
I feel like my stress levels are unsustainable 43% 24% 41% 10%
I am satisfied with my work / life balance 21% 34% 27% 49%
Overall, I felt good about my sleep quality 41% 54% 45% 54%
It often feels like no one at TU Delft cares about me 31% 18%
I feel part of a community at TU Delft 19% 31% 23% 35%
I am generally optimistic about the future 48% 58% 42% 55%
My home working environment is not ergonomic and I can feel the negative effects on my body 48% 44% 50% 36%
I have rearranged my room during corona 30% 25% 39% 61%
© 2011 TU Delft