College students face an enormous amount of stress. Many are living away from their families for the first time while balancing work, academic requirements, and personal obligations. While students have always been under these pressures, student mental health and burnout have been worsening since the pandemic. Technological advancements, such as digital study options and AI study tools like ChatGPT, are changing study habits—sometimes isolating students further. Students don’t always have the support they need to find ways of avoiding student burnout. When stress becomes overwhelming and continues to build, burnout isn’t far behind. Interrupting the progression is critical to avoid serious consequences, such as mental health decline, diminished academic success, and increased dropout rates.
Engaging in campus life can ease stress, reduce loneliness, and improve engagement, helping in avoiding student burnout. Campus events play a pivotal role in fostering a healthy campus life, enabling students to create connections and develop a well-rounded, balanced college lifestyle. Understanding how burnout affects college students and how campus events can mitigate the contributing factors is crucial to addressing the problem.
What Is Student Burnout?
College student burnout is a condition that develops when a student experiences chronic stress over an extended period of time. College students encounter tremendous lifestyle changes, academic pressure, and intense schedule demands. Stress is a normal and healthy reaction to these factors, but stress that becomes overwhelming can lead to burnout.
It’s normal for students to feel overwhelmed when handling a big project or temporary external demands. But stress generally subsides when the pressuring event comes to an end. Burnout occurs when an accumulation of stressors causes students to fall into a negative emotional pattern, leading to withdrawal from normal interactions and activities.
Unfortunately, college burnout is becoming increasingly common. Research before the pandemic showed that a significant proportion of university students experienced academic burnout (16% to 27% on average, and 45% to 56% for medical students). Now, recent studies indicate that rates of emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced academic efficacy have increased to 56%, 53%, and 41%, respectively.
What Causes Student Burnout in College?
Student burnout is caused by a combination of factors that lead to prolonged stress that eventually promotes feelings of chronic fatigue, difficulty concentrating, cynicism, and detachment. Commonly cited root causes of college student burnout include academic pressures, financial stress, and social isolation. A study conducted by the National Institute of Health (NIH) reveals further insight into the relationship between student burnout and campus environments. They rank student quality of life (including relationships among students, sense of belonging, and feelings of self-importance within the school) as a major factor in burnout.
Why Are Students Feeling More Isolated Today?
Nearly two-thirds (64.7%) of college students report feeling lonely. Among LGBTQ college students, the number rises to 70.3%. While loneliness and social isolation aren’t the same thing, isolation can lead to loneliness. Despite being surrounded by peers, students in unfamiliar environments lacking the support systems they’re accustomed to often feel isolated.
Factors that contribute to increasing loneliness among modern college students include:
- Social Media Use: Students can use social media to connect with friends from home instead of attempting to make new connections. Social media can also compound feelings of inadequacy when students compare their situation to the seemingly perfect lives of others.
- Academic Pressure: Intense focus on academic achievement can leave little time and energy for socializing.
- Surface-Level Interactions: Large campuses and busy schedules often mean that interactions between students are fleeting. They also fail to foster deep connections.
- Lack of Belonging: Students who don’t establish a sense of community or feel like they don’t fit in with their peers are more likely to experience isolation.
How AI Impacts Student Connection
Students use AI tools for a range of tasks, leveraging the technology for academics, virtual communication, and entertainment. As these tools become an indispensable part of college life, students spend more time in front of their screens and less time interacting with their peers in person. While AI tools can streamline tasks and reduce stress related to academic workloads, an increasing reliance on AI tools can limit face-to-face interactions and collaborative study, negatively impacting interpersonal skills and potentially leading to heightened loneliness.
How Does Social Connection Help Prevent Burnout?
Social connection helps students build a sense of belonging on campus, giving them the emotional and academic support they need to thrive in a new environment. Students who build connections are more likely to have a strong support system and engage in stress-relieving activities, including campus events, sports, and clubs. Moreover, social connections can help increase engagement, reinforcing the importance of academic goals and maintaining a healthy lifestyle on campus.
How Campus Events Reduce Student Burnout
Busy campus schedules and constant academic pressures contribute to ongoing stress among college students. Balancing the pressures of academic demands with extracurricular campus activities can help students build peer support and foster a sense of belonging. Social well-being and a sense of belonging contribute to academic success, helping to eliminate the reduced personal accomplishment component of student burnout.
Can Campus Events Improve Student Mental Health?
Campus events have the potential to reduce loneliness and stress, which contribute to student burnout, thereby preventing the risk of declining mental health. Chronic stress and burnout can result in long-term mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. Events that reduce stress, connect students with a support system, or help them learn how to balance their academic load can help improve student mental health. However, students with mental health concerns should always seek support from mentors, advisors, and college behavioral staff.
What Types of Events Reduce Stress for Students?
Events that reduce stress for students can vary dramatically, from academic pursuits to pure entertainment. For example, academic study groups and workshops offer a way for students to relieve stress associated with class demands. However, clubs, game nights, concerts, and cultural events can help students reduce stress by promoting relaxation and fostering relationships.
The Power of Peer-Led Events in Avoiding Student Burnout
Giving students a voice on campus can help foster a sense of belonging and community. Peer-led events allow students to plan and host events around their interests. This gives them a sense of ownership over their activities and creates stronger connections among like-minded students. Grassroots events that allow students to plan and participate in events that address current issues they’re passionate about can increase engagement and participation rates. This helps students with avoiding student burnout.
Avoiding Student Burnout by Balancing Work and Play
Academic success is the defining goal in the college experience. This makes academic events and gatherings an obvious choice. But fun and social activities are also a pivotal part of campus life. They help students make connections, blow off steam, and engage in campus life. Our list of most engaging college events highlights the different types of events that are popular on modern college campuses.
Best Practices for Student Engagement Leaders to Create Initiatives for Avoiding Student Burnout
Planning and promoting student events that will boost engagement and reduce burnout requires insight into student interests and a broad promotional reach. These tips can help you develop an event planning strategy.
- Make events accessible and inclusive. Information is crucial for increasing event participation. For events to be considered accessible, they should be highly promoted, easy to find, and have all the logistics in place for all students to attend. Your interactive digital campus map is a vital tool for improving event accessibility. When students can immediately access the event’s location, complete with turn-by-turn navigation, parking information, and wheelchair accessible routes, there are no barriers to attendance.
- Diversify offerings to engage all students. Events that relieve stress and reduce burnout can range from those that support mental health to those that foster a sense of belonging by connecting like-minded students. Plan a calendar of events that include mental health awareness and support, cultural activities, athletic pursuits, and creative events.
- Leverage data to understand what students attend most. Event attendance gives critical insight into the events that appeal to students. When your campus events calendar supports event performance data analytics, you can view trending events, social activity, attendance, user behavior, and more.
- Promote events across multiple channels to maximize reach. College campuses are large and busy places. Informing students about events requires you to meet them where they are — across multiple digital and physical platforms. Post events on your digital event calendar, generate buzz on social media, distribute flyers, and post signs in common areas.
How Can Student Engagement Leaders Identify the Right Events to Fight Burnout?
Identifying the right events to fight burnout requires careful review of historical data and a focus on quality and inclusivity. Giving students ownership of their college experience requires giving them a voice. Use surveys, polls, and questionnaires to ask students about the types of events they want to attend. Confirm the popularity of events by gathering attendance data to compare event participation statistics. However, when ranking event popularity, it’s crucial to focus on quality and inclusivity over sheer quantity. Encourage student engagement and response across multiple platforms to gain insight into how students respond to various events.
Looking Ahead: Avoiding Student Burnout Through Connection
Student stress and feelings of isolation are increasing on college campuses and contributing to the growth of student burnout. Half of college students rate their mental health as fair, poor, or terrible. Also, 40% are “very or extremely” stressed about maintaining their mental health. About one in five students said the same about connecting with other students, drawing a clear connection between reducing or outright avoiding student burnout through social connections. Campus events aren’t just entertainment. They’re essential for forming connections, enhancing engagement, and promoting student well-being.
Colleges and universities hoping to reduce burnout and improve retention will need to consider how their institution supports engagement and make changes to enhance student interactions. For many, this will mean finding ways to enhance communication on campus. Concept3D can help you create a foundation of connection with tools that allow you to communicate with students in ways that boost engagement and confidence in the service of reducing student burnout. Ready to learn more? Reach out today to schedule a demo and learn more about our solutions for college campuses.