UNLOCKING...Students

2022-2024

'UNLOCKING...Students' is a video series by and for students, initiated by the Study Climate programme and the preventative psychologists of TU Delft. Being a student is more than studying: more than 60 students from all eight faculties share on camera how they navigate through our era of performance pressure, high expectations and various uncertainties. 

In the videos, TU Delft's students discuss various topics that matter to them. These are both directly and indirectly linked to focus points of the Study Climate programme such as student success, wellbeing and sense of belonging. Examples of topics covered are:

'Fascination' - What motivates them and what is their fascination with their studies?

'Reaching the top' - What are their ambitions?

'Challenges' - What are (education-related) challenges they face?

'Failing forward' - Is failure (not) an option for them?

'Resilience' - How do they cope with stress and setbacks?

Led by the preventative psychologists, this project was carried out under the umbrella of the Study Climate programme to serve as a preventative and particularly optimistic signal in the field of self-development, wellbeing and a positive learning environment at the university. 'UNLOCKING...Students' aims to acknowledge that challenges and setbacks are part of (student) life and part of any learning process. The videos offer inspiration to embrace challenges and make suitable choices on any personal study and development path. In this way, they are supposed to contribute to the sense of belonging of every student at TU Delft and also positively address the topic of mental resilience. 

The series is a co-production of the TU Delft 'Study Climate programma', TU Delft preventative psychologists and 'De Lichtjagers'. It was designed to be for students by students in order to spread authentic stories from student life at the university. Above that, a faculty approach has been chosen to ensure that students can relate to these stories as much as possile and in order to create a sense of belonging at the faculties itself. Before each faculty production, a workshop took place with students to investigate which major and smaller topics were relevant with regards to being a student at a particular faculty. By this, the final videos were co-created with the students, 'De Lichtjagers' and the preventative psychologists. After a succesful pilot at ME in 2022, all the other faculties engaged in the project throughout 2023 and 2024. 

On 13 November 2024, the finalisation of all eight faculty series was celebrated with almost 500 students. 

To raise awareness of  the project, the 'UNLOCKING Movienight' was organised during the HAU week in the auditorium. A unique and sold-out evening. Via the red carpet, students could walk into the auditorium, where they could take photos with their fellow students and get a sneak peek of 'UNLOCKING...Students' videos from all the faculties. 

After this festive beginning, the evening was opened with a short keynote and the 'UNLOCKING...Students' teaser. This compilation was positively received by the audience before we finally screened the film 'Interstellar' - chosen by students - in top quality and with free snacks for the ultimate cinema experience. 

Photography Credits: Sander Foederer

The project was promoted in different ways at both a faculty and TU broad level. Different actions took place in the context of our communication campaign to raise awareness of the videos. From small popcorn bags with QR codes linking to the videos, book marks with inspiring quotes from participating students, to instagram teasers, netpresenters, posters and the 'UNLOCKING Movienight' mentioned above - we finally unlocked TU Delft. 

Feel free to contact the preventative psychologist, if you are interested in learning more about the project!

Linus Neumann: L.J.Neumann@tudelft.nl

Janne de Kan: J.deKan@tudelft.nl