Ingeborg Himle Matland

Student, how are you?
Collaboration with Alice Moynihan

MA Thesis – Spring 2018

Student, how are you? is the name of my MA thesis project, created together with fellow co-designer Alice Moynihan. The project focuses on sharing stories and experiences of study related struggles through an engaging digital platform, and is created in collaboration with students and Studenterrådgivningen in Copenhagen. Studenterrådgivningen is a free counseling service offered to students in Denmark.
      In Denmark the number of students who sought psychological support in order to complete their university studies trebled in the past 5 years [1]. Despite these rising numbers there is very little visibility about mental health related issues on campus. 

The issues students may struggle with vary from e.g. performance anxiety, loneliness, depression and perfectionism. Being students ourselves (at the time), as well as having close friends and family members who have struggled during their studies, we saw the potential in shedding more light on mental health from a student perspective. This became the starting point of our co-design thesis project. The aim of the project was to open up discussions and raise awareness about the mental wellbeing of university students, and contribute to the ongoing societal conversation around mental health, from students’ perspective. Read more detailed about our process below.