GesA Stud

Students face a wide range of challenges throughout their academic journey that can negatively affect both their health and their academic success. Current findings show that more than 70% of students experience stress (Karyotaki et al., 2020), and stress-related exhaustion has increased significantly in recent years (Techniker Krankenkasse, 2023). Persistent, unmanaged stress can lead to adverse health outcomes (e.g., Gardani et al., 2022; Glaser et al., 2015; Quick et al., 2014) and increase the risk of dropping out of university (Hjorth et al., 2016). At the same time, existing counselling services are heavily strained due to rising demand (Deutsches Studierendenwerk, 2024). Therefore, there is an urgent need for preventive, low-threshold, and stigma-free support services.

This is where the project “Healthy and Successful Studying” (GesA Stud), funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, comes into play. The project aims to develop and evaluate innovative prevention and intervention measures that strengthen student health and sustainably promote academic success.

Within the project, participating students receive an individualized demand–resource profile based on comprehensive diagnostics. Building on this, they are supported over the course of a semester with tailored measures to enhance well-being, stress management, and study-related competencies. The study includes multiple surveys and different study conditions (including a waitlist control group) to validly assess differential effects of the interventions.

GesA Stud aims to strengthen health-related competencies among students that are effective both during their studies and in their later professional lives. At the same time, the project seeks to reduce dropout rates and increase academic success. In addition, it generates valuable insights into students’ demands and resources, as well as evidence-based recommendations for designing health-promoting study environments.

The developed measures and a digital tool are intended to be made available to universities nationwide in the long term. Participating universities benefit both from direct support for their students and from aggregated data and concrete recommendations for the further development of health- and success-promoting structures.