Happy students with well-being are more likely to graduate, says Professor Liesel Ebersöhn
The fruit bowl at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Study of Resilience is not incidental. It is an intentional part of the Centre’s philosophy. Based on a study on why people in certain parts of the world live way longer than others, the Blue Zone phenomenon, which the researchers had circled in blue on a map, referred to nine traits common to those who live in these longevity hotspots.
One of their lifestyle habits is a mostly plant-based diet — a practice that has inspired the UP Centre’s bowl of fruit.
Professor Liesel Ebersöhn (left), the centre’s Director, said it might sound ridiculous, “but we started using it, and it works like a charm. A fruit bowl is available for anybody to pick an apple or an orange from, and we all contribute. It’s not something only done by leadership. Everybody brings something to the fruit bowl, and we pay attention to living balanced and nutritious lives.”
Ebersöhn was speaking on Wellness in Postgraduate Education at the Enabling Quality Postgraduate Education (EQPE) colloquium held on the East Rand on 17 and 18 March. She was one of three keynote speakers at the event themed Exploring Preparedness for Postgraduate Studies.
Sinking not thinking
Professor Ebersöhn began with two anecdotes. One told of a YouTube meme in which a German coast guard misunderstands a call for help, thinking “we are sinking” is “we are thinking”, which is how he would pronounce it in his accented English. “Often we have postgraduate students who say: ‘We are sinking, we are sinking’,” she said in a pronounced German accent, “and we then say: ‘What are you thinking about?’ ”
The other anecdote related to her days in practice as an educational psychologist. She drew an image of an ocean between a book and an island with a palm tree, the same she would draw when parents said they were worried about their child who was unhappy and not achieving academically.
“And I used this image to explain the connection between cognition (the symbol of a book), for thoughts, and an ocean (for affect and emotions),” she said. The island represents a certain outcome, something they want to achieve, which could apply to postgraduate students too, she said. “If it’s pretty smooth sailing and emotions are stable, it’s easy to get to this destination. However, if this ocean becomes disrupted, it’s difficult to reach the destination,” said Ebersöhn.
This is where resilience thinking comes in. “Resilience only ever comes to the fore if there’s extreme disruption,” she said, “something that disrupts the ocean, the climate, the conditions, so we can’t reach our destination. Disruption predicts a negative outcome. And resilience is this process where something happens in the ecosystem to mobilise what is available – resources, protective factors – so that an unpredicted positive outcome is possible.”
With postgraduate students, she said a predicted negative outcome would be burnout, cynicism, disengaging from their work and low efficacy — not being able to perform at the level they want to.
From a resilience perspective, an unexpected positive outcome is vigour. They are excited about what they want to achieve, are engaged in their task, and achieve their intended result.
Part of the audience on Day Two of the Enabling Quality Postgraduate Education (EQPE) colloquium, held on the East Rand in Gauteng from 17 to 18 March.
Resources to mobilise for positive outcomes
Professor Ebersöhn outlined which resources people could mobilise to create positive outcomes, that is, to be resilient and overcome disruptions.
She cited the Harvard Study of Adult Development, conducted over 85 years, demonstrating that well-being and happiness are not about money, or status, or ego. They are about meaningful relationships. “So people need connections, the community that matters to them,” she said.
This is backed by a UK study by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, illustrating that for health and well-being across nations, relationships, self-esteem, and functional services matter the most. For postgraduate students, said Ebersöhn, this means safe housing, being able to eat, and not being worried about possible family financial insecurity at home.
She added that time preference theory also shows how we decide to spend our time, and the extent to which we can choose this will determine our happiness.
Furthermore, doing things which help release neurochemicals can make people feel better. Neurochemicals include ocytocin, which she described as the need for human connection and touch, such as being with pets and friends. Others are:
- dopamine, the reward neurotransmitter, which makes you feel you are living a life of purpose;
- endorphin, which dulls pain and anxiety and stress, “so after you’ve had a long day, isn’t it wonderful just to sit and laugh with somebody, or scroll mindlessly on Instagram, or read a book you really enjoy?” she said; and
- serotonin is the “mood enhancer, so do things like being in nature, feeling sun on your skin, relaxing”.
The Blue Zone Phenomenon
The Blue Zones project, based on a study started about 20 years ago, refers to the five longevity hotspots in Italy, Greece, Japan, Costa Rica and the United States. Researchers then reverse engineered longevity and identified nine common practices in these zones that lead to longer, healthier, happier lives.
These practices, with Professor Ebersöhn’s explanation of how they can be applied to the postgraduate context, are:
- Family first – so mentors need to see students not only as individuals but as people connected to a family that matters to them;
- Belonging to a small tribe or community – this could be a postgraduate group who work together in a lab and share the same focus;
- Belonging to some kind of purposeful, faith-based space – not a formalised religion but being with people who share the same values and the same belief of existence;
- Move naturally – not a formal gym regime but to climb stairs, stand up to go for coffee, to walk during a break, movement that will enhance dopamine, endorphin and serotonin;
- Plant slant – eating mostly plant-based foods;
- 80% rule – the hara hachi bu principle of eating until you are 80% full;
- Wine @ 5 – this does not have to be taken literally, she said, but refers to celebrating the end of the day, a ritual of signing off and going into a different role, which is very difficult for postgrads, because they are very tough on themselves, are high achievers and expect to be on the go all the time;
- Purpose – Ask: “Why are you doing this master’s? Why are you doing this doctorate? What is your next step and why? How will it make you feel more of who you are”?
- Downshift – make time to be in nature or go for a morning walk. Feel the difference if you deliberately fit this into your daily programme. “Let postgrads know: ‘yes to all the readings, yes to everything you need to do, but also downshift’,” she said.
Building resilience in southern Africa
The Centre for the Study of Resilience did a 10-year study, Indigenous Pathways to Resilience, looking at the use of indigenous knowledge systems during adaptive coping processes.
“And what we found different to elsewhere in the world is that in Sub-Saharan Africa, we flock. It is different to other places where there’s fight, flight, faint and swarm if there’s a crisis. What we do is come together.”
Flocking means using social resources can lead to unpredicted positive outcomes. And their “beauty”, said Professor Ebersöhn, is that social resources and support do not cost money. “It’s an extremely sophisticated, low-cost way of supporting many towards collective well-being,” she said, something evident globally during COVID.
Discussions
Her presentation ended with discussions on the question: “How can university leadership mobilise structures for social support that enable positive postgraduate wellbeing?”
These needed to be existing, cost-free structures. They had to be spaces where students could attain well-being because, and this was the crux of her presentation: “there’s a strong correlation between well-being of postgrads and graduation”.
The suggested structures included:
- campus counselling facilities and wellness centres;
- sporting activities
- book clubs
- coffee discussion sessions where students share experiences
- weekend writing retreats
- research commons attached to libraries for students to work together
- coffee areas in libraries
- networking events
- postgraduate student associations.
Questions and comments
Ms Pia Lamberti (right), Head of the Postgraduate Writing Unit in the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits): Is a virtual community possible? Post-COVID, students are not keen to come to contact sessions. If you want to take it to scale, at Wits we have 14 000-plus postgraduates; how do you do it, unless you do it virtually?”.
Professor Ebersöhn: “In this room, we probably have many examples of where a virtual community can be maintained over time. The trick is how, in that virtual community, we allow neurochemistry to happen – space for oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine and endorphin. We can bring humanity into an online space that goes beyond just a task-oriented approach.”
Professor Stephanie Burton (left), Chair of Universities SA’s Community of Practice for Postgraduate Education and Scholarship, and one of the EQPE’s project coordinators: All our universities try hard to put these kinds of support structures in place, like sport clubs. The problem I have — and which I don’t have an answer to — is the students who either don’t know about those places or don’t feel they belong or that they can access those services.
Another point I want to make is that we’re not only talking about the well-being of students, but also of supervisors. If supervisors are ‘not in a good place‘, to use a colloquialism, that’s just as much of a problem.
Two other delegates mentioned events relating to postgraduate wellness at their institutions:
- North-West University hosts an annual postgraduate orientation programme designed to equip new postgraduates with tools, insights and connections they need to thrive in the academic space. The theme is strategies for building a positive relationship with supervisors.
- The Centre for Higher and Adult Education at Stellenbosch University hosted its ninth biennial international conference on Research into Postgraduate Supervision, this one themed Postgraduate Supervision as Relational, from 25 to 28 March.
Gillian Anstey is a contract writer for Universities South Africa.
