Student's Compass

The Student's Compass is a well-being and life-skills program developed in the University of Jyväskylä and offering practical tools for enhancing psychological and emotional wellbeing, addressing motivation challenges, adjustment, stress-related issues, and promoting overall well-being. The program is freely available for the students and staff of Tampere University. 

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Program aims

Aims of the program are: 

  • to promote students' well-being including psychological, emotional, social, physical and mental wellness 
  • encourage self-development and self-care 
  • help students cope more effectively with study-related challenges such as difficulties concentrating and completing tasks, worries about graduating and any other motivation-related issues 
  • provide strategies to work through life challenges more effectively
  • to prevent and address stress, anxiety and mood-related problems 

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Robust theoretical frame 

The program is primarily based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). One of the main goals of ACT is to increase psychological flexibility, which means the ability to be mindfully present and accept one's own thoughts, feelings, and other internal experiences while guiding one's own actions toward a meaningful life. Psychological flexibility can be practiced. Psychological flexibility skills have been found to be useful in academic and work performance, interpersonal relationships, and in many areas of mental health, such as stress, anxiety, and depression.




Based on rigorous research

ACT is an in­no­v­a­tive and ro­bust third-wave cog­ni­tive-be­hav­ioral mod­el that has over thir­ty years of sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly proven the­o­ry. In fact, there are so far over 900 ran­dom­ized con­trolled tri­als (ACBS, up­dat­ed December 2022) demon­strat­ing sup­port for the ACT mod­el. Many stud­ies show that it is an ef­fec­tive method in en­hanc­ing well­be­ing and help­ing peo­ple with a wide range of prob­lems, in­clud­ing re­duc­ing stress, anx­i­ety, and de­pres­sion, which are also very com­mon is­sues amongst uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents. 





10 years of research

Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä have conducted numerous randomized trials on the Student's Compass program. Research has shown that the program is effective in terms of enhancing the students' emotional, social, and psychological well-being, self-esteem, mindfulness skills and overall satisfaction with life. Participating actively in the program can also reduce symptoms of stress and depression. The effectiveness of using the Student's Compass online programme has also been assessed by Tampere University. The students who used the Student's Compass online programme reported, for example, increased well-being and reduced study exhaustion, depression, anxiety, stress and experiences of loneliness.



Using the Student's Compass

The program is easily accessible online and you can use it independently, at your own pace and anonymously. The program consists of different themes addressing well-being. The program is skills-based, with easy-to-learn experiential exercises and plenty of practice materials that are available in text, audio, and video form.

The English version of the Student's Compass consists of ‘The path to wellbeing’ -program, which includes five themes or steps that have been scientifically proven to enhance wellbeing and quality of life. 



Wellbeing path

Check out our Five-step wellbeing program->






Over 70 wellbeing exercises

Try out the exercises->




Testimonials

More than 800 students at Tampere University have completed the course Student's Well-being and Life Skills since May 2021.

"It was great to get a new perspective and concrete helping tools. Now I have a clearer understanding of my own thoughts and feelings. Exploring personal values helped me prioritize meaningful activities"

"It's great that something like this is made for students! A website like this should be open to everyone, regardless of city, place of study or job and age!"

"It's nice to have an opportunity like this as a student, I feel privileged!"



Work independently or with support

Students can use the Student's Compass at their own pace, independently and anonymously. Students can earn ECTS for using the program by completing the independent Student's Well-being and Life Skills study unit (1 credit). Use of the online programme is free of charge for all students at Tampere University.

You can also participate in the support sessions.

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