Research conducted with and for students as opposed to exclusively on and about students is an example of citizen science. Citizen science is based on the idea that everyone is an expert in their own everyday life, and therefore an important source of knowledge in matters of people, health, and society. 

In the autumn semester 2021, we put together a scientific group with researchers (primarily from the Department of Community Medicine) and student representatives from the Student Research Programme in Psychology and the master’s programme in Public Health. The students were recruited through the student representative system, with the consent of the Health Sciences faculty administration. The workshops with the scientific group were carried out in November and December 2021.

We also assembled a student panel, originally intended as a reference group, but which instead became a panel of co-researchers because we wanted research with, by and for students. The student panel was recruited through the student representative system. A total of 18 UiT students from the Finnmark, Harstad, Narvik, and Tromsø campuses, as well as the Bodø site, signed up as co-researchers. The students were from all faculties, and the Arctic University Museum of Norway and the Academy of Arts. Most of the co-researchers on the student panel already participate actively in various student activities and are probably not fully representative of the student population. 

Dialogue workshops with the student panel as co-researchers 

Together with the Student Parliament, we organized a total of seven (remote and in-person) dialogue workshops with the student panel during the spring semester of 2022. We started the workshops as an open dialogue about what matters to students in their daily life and study environment, and what we need to know more about. We used the conversation café method for the student panel, a structured conversation process in groups sat around several small tables. A conversation café is intended to create an informal setting that provides room for knowledge sharing and the exchange of ideas, as well as discussion, evaluation, and development. The participating student co-researchers talked about relevant ideas and sorted all received ideas according to theme and priority. 

Through our dialogue workshops, the students asked for locally tailored and practically applicable research. The co-researchers identified four central main themes: basic needs and conditions, good meeting places, participation, as well as predictable and stable academic and social frameworks. The basic needs and conditions that must be in place are financial security, support, and health care, a sense of belonging and community, room for personal development and education in the transition from youth to adulthood, sufficient sleep, and low stress. Good meeting places include social meeting places, the importance of social architecture (physical places), meeting places that create engagement and participation, and flexible places for studying. Participation means opportunities to contribute, e.g., through voluntary roles and activities (both formal and informal), friendship, involvement, as well as good information about the opportunities for participation and involvement. Predictable and stable academic-social frameworks include accessible and inspiring teachers, good communication, and practical learning methods, e.g., through contacts with working life. 

Student gaze on mental health and wellbeing 

In addition to our workshops with the co-researchers on the student panel, we invited a selection of students with first-hand experiences of well-being and mental health-related challenges in everyday life to take part in the anthropological research project “Student gaze on mental health and wellbeing”. Five students participated in a film workshop in autumn 2021. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 22 of the youngest full-time students, all based at campus Tromsø, in the period from spring 2021 to spring 2022. In addition, we involved three students from campus Tromsø as experience-consultants in recurring evaluation meetings. A partial goal of “Student gaze on mental health and wellbeing” is to highlight these students' experiences, topics, and input. This will be a supplement to the further work on the well-being survey and related future research projects. 

Well-being post boxes: an anonymous and analogue way of collecting insights 

On World Mental Health Day, we asked students at campus Tromsø to write down what they think promotes and inhibits well-being in everyday student life and post it in an anonymous and analogue well-being post box. Four post boxes had been placed in the two main canteens and two coffee shops at campus Tromsø from the 10th to the 11th of October 2022. We received 52 responses. Preliminary findings indicate similar insights as from the workshops with the co-researchers on the student panel. However, in their feedback through the post boxes, the students highlight to a greater extent the need for good relationships with teachers and point to bullying as an inhibitor to well-being. We want to repeat the well-being post box-experiment to bring in further insights from more students. Two days a week in November 2022, well-being post boxes will be placed in three canteens and one coffee shop at campus Tromsø. Each week students will have the opportunity to give their analogue and anonymous answers to a new question. This input from the students will contribute to our development of the well-being survey. 

The spring semester of 2023

In january 2023, we continued to bring together researchers and students at dialogue workshops to develop research questions and data collection methods.  

Based on our insights and work in collaboration with the students (both as students and as co-researchers), the Student Parliament, the Arctic Student Welfare Organisation, and our colleagues at UiT, we have written and sent an application for research funding to the RELATE-project.