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Pernille Steen Pedersen is in the process of communicating about her new research project. She wants to reach broadly across students, staff and researchers at CBS,  people who might be interested in participating in the project or follow its ongoing activities. The Study Administration, who is a close partner in the project, sent out a notice on social media informing about the initiative. Within a day’s time, 15 new students reached out and expressing wishes to partake in interviews. “It is so exciting” Pedersen remarks, and adds: “I feel so fortunate that students want to share and participate in this work aimed at addressing stress in their study lives. These conversations are important, not only for the research, but also for the beginning change in culture. That students are engaged in taking up this issue is remarkable and so important for how far we can go with it.”

Earlier in march Pernille Steen Pedersen did a webinar on CBS on stress and being home alone in times of corona. Here she explained the idea of how the feeling of shame can be a cause for stress. The video produced a great response from students and staff alike, many who afterwards send mails to Pedersen explaining stress-related situations, sharing comments and insights on the topic. In this podcast Nikolaj Malchow-Møller and Pernille Steen Pedersen dive into some of these responses and discuss the issues of stress and shame. For example, one student had shared: “I can see that I have a guilty conscience all the time, which in many ways seems compatible with shame. The guilty conscience lies first and foremost in all the things I fail to accomplish. Every week, there are texts I do not read and in spite of the expectation of studying being a full-time job, I have to work to earn a living as well. All of these things contribute to my guilty conscience. I am certain that others experience the same. How can I get rid of this feeling?”  Listen to the podcast below and hear their response to this honest sharing by the student. The podcast also zooms in on the importance of working with stress prevention and to create strong communities at CBS to this end, because how we see and acknowledge our selves and each other is central to address the underlying triggers of stress.

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“How does working at home affect us?” is one of the central questions, Pernille Steen Pedersen addresses in a webinar hosted by CBS@home. The pandemic has brought radical changes in the everyday work and study life of CBS staff and students. In response hereto CBS@home asked Pedersen if she, based on her stress research, could share some insights on “how to get through the pandemic in a good way”. See the full video below:

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Students are central to this research project, not only to understand how stress is experienced doing the years of higher education, but also to participate in developing new measures and changes in the culture that triggers stress. So far 40 students have gotten involved with the project. They will act as guinea pigs and sparring partners who can share their ideas and experiences to the extend they like. To Pedersen, an ambition of the project is also to experiment and develop ways to include CBS students more into the process of research. The vision is to enhance both learning and teaching, for example through closer collaboration between students and researchers, opportunities for shared learning and development of new capabilities. The group of students who are involved with this project will be connected to the ongoing process through an online dialogue forum where surveys can be done, questions asked, and ideas shared. Participation is fully volunteer and more students are always welcome to join throughout the research project.

In this article (in danish) brought by Djøfbladet, journalist Laura Brix and Pernille Steen Pedersen discuss this alarming tendency of increasing stress among students and Pedersen’s new research project, that aims to address this very issue within CBS.The article reports that in a national survey done by Danmarks Evalueringsinstitut two years ago one out of three new students felt stressed, but last year Djøf conducted a survey amongst their student members and found this number had increased. In fact, the survey revealed that nine out of ten students felt stress and 61% to “some or a high degree”. This accentuates the problem, which Pernille Steen Pedersen and the new CBS strategic initiative seeks to address. Read the full article here.