Exploring study-life balance of students and

their perceptions of an engagement app

Jelmer Hendriks
University of Twente
P.O. Box 217, 7500AE Enschede
The Netherlands

ABSTRACT,
This report presents the results of a qualitative, explorative study of students’
perspectives on study-life balance and the potential contribution of an app to this
balance. Based on five interviews with bachelor students from the University of
Twente, our conclusion is that students have difficulties achieving a good study-life
balance, due to multiple influencing factors, including their study, side activities,
social environment, financial pressure and personality. A personalized engagement
app in which students can evaluate on their study-life balance and its relevant factors,
could make students aware of managing their study-life balance, with the goal of
reducing stress levels, improving well-being and enhancing study performance.

Graduation Committee members:

Prof. dr. Tanya Bondarouk
Dr. Jeroen Meijerink

Keywords
Student Stress, Work-Life Balance, Study-Life Balance, Student Wellbeing, Study Performance, e-HRM

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original work is properly cited.
CC-BY-NC
1. INTRODUCTION 2. TOWARDS A MODEL FOR STUDY-
Lately, there has been a lot of attention in the media regarding LIFE BALANCE
the well-being and increasing study stress and workloads of
students. In November 2019, Interstedelijk Studenten Overleg Causes of stress among students
(ISO) published a report on the well-being of university and
applied sciences students in The Netherlands. From this report, a Previous research has identified various causes of stress among
weighted average of 57 percent of the 53.000 students students. Stress is mostly defined as being caused by exposure
experienced unhealthy stress and 34 percent suffered from to stressors in the environment (LaMontagne, Keegel, Louie &
psychological related conditions during their study (ISO, 2019). Ostry, 2010). In academic literature, many study-related and
In another project, more than 77 percent of responding students non-study related causes for stress are identified.
experienced a moderate range of stress, while just over 10 For example, Abouserie (1994) identified examinations and
percent experienced a serious range of stress and only 12 percent results, studying for exams, too much to do, the amount to learn,
had no stress problems (Abouserie, 1994). self-imposed need to do well and essays and projects as main
Increasing work stress is not only a trend among students. As sources of stress. Besides this study, various other research
broad debates show, among employees all around the world job projects have identified stress-causing factors. Students feel
stress is increasing. Some researchers argue that nowadays, it is pressure to earn good grades (Hirsch and Ellis, 1996), and
difficult for employees to find balance between their work and experience unclear assignments and excessive homework (Frazer
personal lives (Mauno et al., 2006). This so-called ‘work-life and Kohn, 1986). Other study-related causes are mentioned as
balance’ has been widely explored in the scholarly literature (e.g. heavy workload (Benjamin et al., 1986; Peterson & Peterson,
Hayman, 2005; Moore, 2007; Pocock, 2005). Those who do 2009; Sheldon & Krieger, 2004), no sufficient amount of
succeed and achieve a high level of work-life balance perceive feedback about the study progress (Daicoff, 1997; Dresser,
little to no conflict between their work and personal lives, also 2005), unclear expectations from students (Daicoff, 1997), and
called ‘work-life conflict’ (e.g. Frone, 2003; Quick et al., 2004). deadlines to progress in the study (Misra and McKean, 2000).
Poor work-life balance and higher levels of work-life conflict are External social factors are found to contribute to student stress,
associated with more perceived job stress (Bell, Rajendran & too. Competition between students to stand out and perform
Theiler, 2012). better than others was found by many as a strong stress factor
Comparing the increasing stress and workloads of students with (Daicoff, 1997; Gutierrez, 1985; Pritchard & McIntosh, 2003;
the trend of more job stress, poorer work-life balance and more Sheldon & Krieger, 2004; Tani & Vines, 2009; Stallman, 2012).
work-life conflict of employees offers us unique knowledge that It was shown that students are focused on results (Tani & Vines,
can be possibly applied to students, as students experience poor 2009) and therefore strive to get the best grades (Peterson &
balance between their study and personal lives. Since both Peterson, 2009) that puts a lot of self-inflicted pressure on
professional and personal lives of employees are different than students, which is a driver for increased levels of stress. Although
those of students, the term work-life balance does not apply for competition exists in most fields of study, there are some in
students. Therefore, we introduce a new term – study-life particular which tend to be more competitive, such as in law
balance. We define it as the division between a student’s time schools (Australian Law Students Association, 2010; Larcombe
and focus between their study and other activities, such as leisure et al., 2013).
activities and extracurricular activities and how a student’s study Besides study-related stressors, some non-study related causes of
and personal life (positively or negatively) affect or interfere with stress have been defined as well. These include financial
each other. pressures and relationships with friends and family (Wright,
The concept study-life balance has not yet been explored as 1967), hobbies and curricular activities and personal habits and
widely as work-life balance in literature. Exploring this concept worries, such as alcohol, smoking, commuting and sickness
further will explain causes of increasing levels of stress among (Double & Supriya, 2010). Also, some causes of stress related to
students and contribute to further research on well-being of adapting to a new environment have been noticed. Especially
students. freshmen experience more stress because of factors like being
away from home for the first time, having to maintain good
The first goal of this research is to explore the perceptions of performance and adjusting to a new social environment at the
students on the study-life balance problem. This gives insight in same time (D’Zurilla & Sheedy, 1991; Ross et al., 1999).
the way students experience their own study-life balance,
whether or not there is a problem with keeping balance, possible In integration, we see that researchers have found several groups
causes of this problem and which important factors play a role in of factors that contribute to student stress during their study.
achieving such balance. Although there are more, in our view these are the most important
groups: study-related factors, external social environment
The second goal of this research is to explore the potential
contribution of an app in the process of monitoring study-life
balance. This is done by exploring the perspectives of students
on the contribution an app could have in this process. Results
give insight into the perceived implication of monitoring certain
aspects or factors of study-life balance and how these could
possibly help to solve, predict or avoid the study-life balance
problems.
Therefore, this explorative study was inspired by two main
research questions:
1. What are the perceptions of students on study-life balance?
2. What is the potential contribution of an engagement app to
the study-life balance of students?

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factors, and personality factors. This leads us to the following analyze their work energy. On a daily basis after work,
model: employees evaluate their day by giving it a rating of 1-10, adding
a note which shortly describes the day and by reflecting on the
six work drivers, which are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1. Groups of factors influencing stress levels

of students
Study, the external social environment and the personality of
students all contribute to the amount of stress of a student. The
aspects that contribute to these three main groups of factors can
have both a positive and negative influence on the levels of
stress.
We conclude that student stress is widely explored in previous
research. However, the research conducted on study-life
balance and the impact of student stress on study-life balance is
limited. Some aspects might be similar to those of employee
stress impacting work-life balance. However, the life of a
student studying at university and the life of an employee
working in an organization vastly differ. Therefore, we cannot
use the same influencing factors for study-life balance as for Figure 2. Drivers and sub drivers in VIGO
work-life balance. Meanwhile, we can use observations by
researchers who worked on work-life balance saying that stress
At the end of each month, employees receive a dashboard on
affects the quality of life and naturally leads to work-life
which the collected evaluation data is presented and analyzed.
imbalance (e.g. Fleetwood, 2007; Aryee et al., 2005).
Employees can easily see insights such as their average daily
Therefore, it is probable that student stress also leads to study-
score, how their scores are distributed over the days of the week,
life imbalance.
which drivers they score better or worse at and more. On top of
Importance and consequences of study-life balance that, VIGO Insights provides them with more in-depth insights
Significant levels of stress have been proven to have a and personalized, to-the-point advised based on the analyzed
significant impact on an individual’s well-being and it can data. Employees thus gain insight in which drivers give them
cause various psychological, behavioural and physical health energy at work and which drivers drain their energy.
difficulties (Gatchel & Kishino, 2012). Furthermore, work- What makes VIGO unique, is their bottom-up approach and daily
related stress increases the chance of depression, anxiety, evaluation frequency (Veldwijk, 2019). This bottom-up
aggression, fatigue, burnout, alcohol use, smoking, infrequent approach makes employees aware of and responsible for their job
exercise and poor diet (Leka & Jain, 2010). These consequences satisfaction. Based on the insights, they can evaluate what they
of an unhealthy amount of stress are also seen among students. need to improve their work energy and subsequently take
Some start to use alcohol and drugs to cope with their stress initiative to make changes happen or discuss their needs with a
(Johnson, 1986). Furthermore, students experience depression manager.
and other mental illnesses (Furr et al., 2001) and even attempt
Due to its bottom-up approach, VIGO is a good starting point to
suicide (Bernard & Bernard, 1980).
explore the potential contribution of an app to the study-life
balance of students. This approach could potentially enable a
more bottom-up culture at universities in which students are
3. METHODOLOGY presented with the opportunity to take initiative to fulfil their
The main goals of this research are to explore the perceptions of needs based on insights provided by a similar tool.
students on study-life balance and the potential contribution of Data collection
an engagement app to study-life balance. The method used to
address these goals is explained in this chapter Qualitative, explorative research was applied to gain in-depth
insight into the perspectives of students on the study-life balance
The app VIGO problem. Useful insights for this research were honest thoughts
To research the potential contribution of an app to manage study- and new perspectives and issues regarding the research topic, for
life balance, we decided to take the existing application VIGO as which in-depth interviews were found to be a suitable method
a point of reference. (Broyce & Neale, 2006). The research was done by means of
interviews, as for this research it was of interest to discover the
VIGO is an employee engagement tool presented in a mobile stories of students and gain insights from their knowledge and
application. The app enables employees to measure, track and
experiences about the topic (Doody & Noonan, 2013). The

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interviews were held in an unstructured form, starting with a very Afterwards, the students were questioned on the sub-topics
open question concerning the study-life balance problem with overall perception and usefulness of such an app and dashboard
follow-up questions based on the respondent’s insights and for students, relevance of the currently included drivers and sub-
thoughts (Holloway & Wheeler, 2010). drivers in the app and ideas for additions and changes.
In total, five interviews were conducted of which two were done Increasing reliability of online interviews
online and three took place face-to-face. All interviews were held As described before, two of the five interviews were conducted
in a time span of one and a half week with the first on online. Due to COVID-19 and its social distancing measures, not
Wednesday, June 3, and the last on Friday, June 12, 2020. The all interviews could be done face-to-face. For the three
lengths of the interviews varied between 34 minutes and 66 interviews that did take place face-to-face, the social distancing
minutes, with an average length of approximately 49 minutes. measures were carefully applied.
The online interviews were held using digital meeting software
Zoom. During the interviews, only few notes were taken to fully Since online interviews are different than face-to-face
focus and listen to the participants’ responses. For the online interviews, the possible effects that the difference in methods
meetings using Zoom, the built-in recording feature was used to could have was taken into account. In previous research, some
capture the audio from the interview. For the face-to-face advantages and limitations of online interviews have been
meetings, the standard iPhone Voice Memos application was identified.
used. All participants gave permission to record the audio before Most research on this topic mentions Skype as a tool to conduct
the interviews started. online interviews. However, for this research Zoom was chosen.
All participants were, at the time of the interviews, studying at Zoom is a videoconferencing tool widely used by both
the University of Twente (UT). The students were all doing their companies and individuals. The tool enables users to have online
bachelor’s degree in different fields of study and varying study meetings by using a microphone and webcam on either a
years, as shown in Table 1. Furthermore, we decided to include computer, smartphone or tablet. Zoom has an integrated function
students from various countries of origin and genders. In total, to record the audio, video, or both during a call.
students of three countries of origin participated in this research. One of the main advantages of conducting online interviews is
Two participants were female. The ages of the participants varied that the individuals involved in the interview are location
between 20 and 23 years old, averaging at 22.2 years old. independent, which enables easy internationalization of the
Table 1. Interview participants research and mitigates the cost of travel (O’Connor et al., 2008).
This removes the financial and geographical dispersion
Interviewee Field of study Study year constraints of face-to-face interviews, expanding the boundaries
International of research populations (Cater, 2011).
Interviewee 1 Business 2nd year However, limitations of online interviews have been found also.
Administration It is more difficult to get a sense of body language when a
International webcam is used instead of a face-to-face interview. The webcam
Interviewee 2 Business 1st year usually captures merely the individual’s head and upper body. As
Administration a consequence, it is hard to read the other person’s body
Interviewee 3 Psychology 2nd year language. The visual, non-verbal cues that are in a face-to-face
setting helpful to contextualize the interview participant, are lost
Creative (O’Connor et al., 2008). Besides this challenge, Hay-Gibson
Interviewee 4 3rd year
Technology (2009) identified a possibility that an interviewee is not
International comfortable being filmed and that for some individuals the
Interviewee 5 Business 3rd year requirement to obtain the correct software is an obstacle to
Administration participate in the interview.
In the two online conducted interviews in this research, the latter
challenges were not experienced. Fortunately, the two
At the start of the interview, the relevance of the research was
participants with whom the interview was held online already
explained. Then, the topic study-life balance was introduced to
had the Zoom software installed. Even if this was not the case,
the students, some background information from the literature this challenge probably would have not applied, since Zoom
was given, the concept study-life balance was explained, the app offers the possibility to participate in the meeting through a web
VIGO was shortly introduced, and the research questions were browser on a computer, although for better user experience
mentioned. Subsequently, based on the research questions, the
downloading the software is the preferred option.
students were questioned on the two main topics with each some
sub-topics. There was no predetermined list of questions. The However, the other limitation regarding body language and
information and perceptions of students was gathered through verbal clues did apply. Reading a participant’s body language
follow-up questions and discussion based on the respondents’ and verbal clues was much more difficult through the webcam
answers. Besides the main topics with sub-topics, the interview than it was for the face-to-face interviews. One of the reasons for
was very open and encouraging to discuss other relevant topics. this was that only the face and upper body was visible. However,
also the facial expressions were still hard to read since there still
The first main topic was the perception of the student on study-
is a big difference between looking at an individual face-to-face
life balance. This topic included the sub-topics overall perception and on a screen.
of study-life balance and student stress, own experience with
maintaining balance and factors which influence study-life Furthermore, it was more difficult to build rapport and establish
balance and stress. a good connection of understanding each other during the online
interviews. Also, explaining the app VIGO by using screenshots
The second main topic was the student’s perspective on the
was easier to do in person than it was online through screen
contribution of an app like VIGO to study-life balance. The app
sharing. Other problems arose due to network issues, where at
VIGO was thoroughly introduced to the students with support of
screenshots from the app itself and the monthly dashboard.

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times the internet connection was poor which caused that not
everything said was understandable. “I feel like most of my day is
Data analysis spent thinking about my
To analyze the interviews, we used open coding, axial coding and study”
selective coding. Firstly, we transcribed the interviews verbatim.
Personal life interfering with study
The transcribing took approximately 4 hours per hour of audio
recording, thus the average time of transcribing per interview Interference from personal life to study is less recognized by the
was a bit more than 3 hours, or approximately 16 hours for all participants. Interviewee 2 said “I don’t think my university life
interviews in total. is affected by my personal life, because I usually put university
first”. Meanwhile, another student did experience this
During and after the transcribing, we marked interesting quotes
interference sometimes: “The only moments when it was really
and added comments to summarize the insights. Then, all quotes
stressing, was when one of the things I did didn’t go as planned,
were collected in a document, where for each chunk of text an
then the other stuff also suffered from that” (Interviewee 5).
open code was allocated. After that, related quotes were grouped
in categories, or second order open codes. Extra activities
For the first part of the interviews regarding study-life balance, Besides studying, the students carry out various other activities.
we created 145 first-order open codes. These codes are grouped From the interviews, we identified two main categories of extra
in 28 second-order open codes, which are described in chapter activities: extracurricular activities and physical activity.
4.1 (p.5). All the collected quotes with their respective coding Students participate in these activities for various reasons.
can be found in the appendix (Appendix Table 3, p.15). Extracurricular activities
For the second part of the interviews regarding the potential Mainly interviewees 1 and 5 participate in extracurricular
contribution of an app like VIGO, we created 55 first-order open activities. Some of the identified activities are doing a board year,
codes. These codes are categorized in 15 second-order codes, committees and an honours program. Interviewee 5 argued that
which are described in chapter 4.2 (p.8). The quotes for the students do these activities because “These are the things that
second part can also be found in the appendix (Appendix Table students see more value in” and that
4, p.20).
“Students want to develop
4. FINDINGS themselves also besides their
In this chapter, the findings of the interviews after analysis are studies”
presented. The first part focuses on the perceptions of students
on study-life balance. After analyzing the results, we divided this Interviewee 5 also said that universities should “take into
part in three sections: study-life balance, study and social account that students do a lot besides their study” and that
environment. The second part focuses on their perspectives on universities should “encourage it and adapt the study program
the potential contribution of an app like VIGO to study-life to it”. On the other hand, interviewee 1 said “I couldn’t say if I
balance. didn’t have all this stuff whether I would study more”. It would
only help clearing his mind.
4.1 Students’ perspectives on study-life Physical activity
balance
Doing sports and other physical activities was recognized as a
big stress reliever for most students. They noticed that they can
4.1.1 Study-life balance get their mind free when doing sports and that they don’t think
In general, the participants had varying views on their study-life about university during physical activity. However, one
balance. Most participants stated that their study-life balance is interviewee stated that he thinks about university in the gym
variable, shifting from one side to the other depending on many “because you are just with yourself”, but “if you’re doing sports
factors. These influencing factors are further elaborated in this in a group, like when I was rowing, you don’t think about
chapter. Overall, interviewees 2 and 5 stated that they have a school”. According to interviewee 4 it helps to plan a moment
good study-life balance, whereas interviewee 1 said “I do so for physical activity, so you know that that is the time to not focus
much that it is not possible to have a good balance” and on university.
interviewee 4 also recognized a lack in balance. Financial pressure
Intrusion of study and life One of the topics regarding study-life balance that came up in
One commonly mentioned factor which negatively influences almost every interview, is that the balance is negatively affected
study-life balance is the mix of study and life. Interviewees if the student is in a poor financial situation. All interviewees
expressed an opinion that study can interfere with personal life, were in a comfortable financial situation, however one
but personal life can also interfere with study. It appeared that interviewee noticed that there are “some people who look at
study interfering with personal life is a more recognized issue. every euro they spend, and I think that they’re really stressed
Study interfering with personal life from that”.
The interviewees argued that studying is costly and that this
Multiple students recognized that their study very seldom leaves
their mind, it is always present. They found it difficult not to could cause for financial pressure if a student is not in a
think about university work while trying to relax and thus they comfortable financial situation. Interviewee 1 stated that “You
have to buy the books to get good grades, and the books are like
said that their study interferes with their personal life.
a couple of hundred euros every module”. Furthermore,
interviewee 3 argued that it would be stressing if you could not
pay your rent. Financial pressure also puts pressure on study
performance, as interviewee 5 noticed:

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 deadlines. One stress-resistant interviewee often thinks “It will
“Every year we study extra be fine, we will see how it works out” and another interview said,
costs €2000, without even “my personality and mindset lead to not being so stressed about
deadlines and bad grades”.
counting cost of living”
Managing study-life balance
Part-time job besides study
Finally, during the interviews, we noticed that students already
The participants noticed that some students have to work to cover developed various methods to manage their study-life balance.
all their expenses. This could, according to the interviewees,
Scheduling your day
cause for stress and study-life imbalance. Interviewee 3 said, “I
think I won’t have any time to work and have a private life when Multiple interviewees said that they schedule their day, because
I have to do a lot for university”. Also, interviewee 1 experienced “Scheduling your day is a big benefit” (interviewee 1).
that being in a situation where you do not have to work releases Interviewee 5 stated: “Every day I write down my to-do list and
pressure. I really try to do everything”. Interviewee 1 does more or less the
same, but also includes the time for each task: “I have a schedule
Flexibility
where I type in what I’m going to do at which time, what my top
One aspect that students noticed to help them in achieving a good priorities are and also what kind of sports I’m going to do that
study-life balance is flexibility. Interviewee 5 argued that “a day”. Furthermore, interviewee 5 noticed that not scheduling
fixed schedule would be a problem for people who want to be time to relax is a problem, because “during the time that is not
active besides their studies”. However, having the freedom to be scheduled I’m usually thinking, ‘I should probably be studying’”.
flexible also comes with a certain responsibility. Interviewee 3
Having a routine
experienced that “a flexible schedule helps me manage my stress
levels and balance, but it could be dangerous to get lazy and Different students noticed that having a routine helps them with
procrastinate”. Interviewee 5 has a similar view: finishing their study work, while also keeping a healthy balance.
Interviewee 2 noticed: “If I start really early at like 8 or 9, then
“I think if you have the discipline, it is I’m done at 6 and then I studied really well, and I can just eat
dinner and then chill”. Another student noticed that being out of
very beneficial if you can schedule the normal routine causes him to wake up later than usual, which
your own time when to study” also puts him out of his study routine. Interviewee 3 said that he
routinely does his university work in the week and that he
Having a flexible schedule schedules “one day in the week where I go to a party or drink
One of the interviewees noticed that having a flexible schedule with friends or stuff”.
could increase work efficiency, because “you can decide for Reflecting on the day
yourself when you would like to work, like what is your most
efficient time of the day”. Interviewee 5 argued that “It is We noticed that most of the participants also reflected on their
important to have the space to plan your own appointments” and day in some way. The methods used for this vary a lot.
that he thinks it is good that the study load in his study program Interviewee 1, who, as mentioned before, keeps a time schedule,
“is not very bound to certain moments”. reflects on how many tasks were accomplished that day and if
they were finished on time. Another interviewee said that she
Personality reflects on her day by talking to someone about the day. This
A factor that influences the study-life balance of an individual is sometimes makes her realize that she did nothing except for
their personality. This was already noticed in previous research, studying. Interviewee 4 likes to keep a journal to look back at
and all interviewees agreed that personality affects a student’s how the day was going, which is helpful to realize how much was
study-life balance. achieved during the day: “I feel like I always need to do
something more, but if I see that I’ve done quite a lot already
Discipline
then I feel like I actually did something”. Another interviewee
One of the commonly mentioned characteristics during the mentioned that he only thinks back when he did not achieve
interviews was discipline. As mentioned in the flexibility aspect everything that he wanted to and how he will make up for it.
before, the students noticed that it is important to have the Setting priorities
discipline to study. Interviewee 5 noticed that “I procrastinate a
lot and then the work all piles up” and that “It’s probably all on Another mentioned way to keep study and life balanced is by
me that I don’t have the balance”. setting the right priorities. For example, not focusing on study
enough might lead to an imbalance to the study side later, as
Self-control
interviewee 5 experienced. This interviewee thinks students
Interviewee 1 stated that one of the most important things when might get distracted when they fail to set priorities:
it comes to maintaining study-life balance is the capability to
manage yourself. Interviewee 5 had similar views and said that “In the beginning, students see the
there should be support in university to learn how to set priorities
and that “it should be in the first year to set a good starting
endless possibilities and think they can
point”. This interviewee acknowledged that: do everything, and then at a certain
“It all comes down to setting moment you learn to set priorities”
Procrastination
priorities”
Lastly, the interviewees mentioned that procrastination should be
Stress resistance avoided to succeed in managing study-life balance effectively.
A few interviewees said that they are very stress-resistant, which Procrastinating on studying leads to a student having to do all the
leads to them not being so worried about their grades and work shortly before the exam period or deadline, at the expense
of their study-life balance in that period. Interviewee 2 states to

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have achieved a good study-life balance, because of dividing the Self-inflicted pressure
study work over the module, whereas some of her friends “start As it seems, work pressure is sometimes also self-inflicted. Some
1 week before the exam to even look at the stuff and then they get students put pressure on themselves by setting goals for attaining
really stressed. Then they just have to work full nights and don’t high grades on exams. However, we noticed that this was
have a life at all anymore”. different for the participants. Interviewee 3 and 4 are satisfied
with their grade if they passed the exam: “I do my stuff, so I know
I pass, but I don’t need to do more or less so I don’t stress myself
4.1.2 Study out with that” (interviewee 3). Meanwhile, another interviewee
In this section, the findings of students’ perspectives on study- is aiming to obtain his degree cum laude, which puts a lot of
related factors which influence their study-life balance are pressure on himself. Also, interviewee 2 aims to get good grades:
elaborated. We noticed that participants mainly mentioned
aspects related to work pressure and study performance as being
stressing and leading to imbalance.
“I already passed the exam, but I
Work pressure
wanted to get a better grade,
Students are experiencing high work pressure for various so I did the resit”
reasons. Some participants put pressure on themselves, while Study performance
others experience pressure caused by external factors.
Participants mentioned that study performance plays an
Workload important role in their life as a student, and thus can affect their
The interviewees experienced heavy workloads. As interview 5 study-life balance. Students mainly experience pressure to
said: “The pressure is too high for students” and interviewee 2 perform and want to separate themselves from others to have a
mentioned having studied for 11 hours per day during exam better position for their future career.
periods. However, this is not the same for everyone: “I don’t Pressure to perform
think it’s the system, because the workload that is given is
doable” (interviewee 4). The workload seems to vary depending Students experience a certain pressure to perform in their studies.
on the time of the year: “The modules take 10 weeks, and you One participant mentioned that a possible reason could be that
don’t have the same study load over the 10 weeks. Especially in “You’re never really done with studying. You can always do
the exams period it really increases” (interviewee 1). In addition, more to get better grades”. Another interviewee mentioned that
interviewee 3 not only noticed a difference between the start and she is sometimes scared that she is not able to get a sufficient
the end of a module, but also between different modules. This grade.
interviewee stated that “some modules are very hard, and you One stated that a consequence of this pressure to perform is that
don’t do anything else besides studying” and “the other module students are “too nervous when they are in the exam that they
was a little bit more relaxed because of more time between tests actually don’t get high grades” (interviewee 1). Interviewee 5
and less tests”. also mentioned that he missed out on something he later
Not being prepared for the heavy workload somewhat regrets not doing: “I did not join a very active student
association, because my first priority was on university because
In the section before this, we mentioned that students experience of the pressure of getting the degree”.
a heavy workload. One commonly mentioned possible cause for
this is that students are often not prepared for high workloads Separating yourself from others
when they make the step from high school to university. As Students experience this pressure to perform, because they want
interviewee 5 stated, this could cause for issues with study-life to separate themselves from other students. As interviewee 2
balance in the first few years of studying: mentioned: “I just don’t want to be an okay student, I want to be
a good student”. Interviewee 1 had similar thoughts:
“I can imagine that students have a hard
time in their first and second year “You can separate yourself from
of studies and that after a while they the other students because of
will find the balance” your grades”
Another interviewee also noticed this, saying that “The students Future career
are often very young, and they have never worked so for them it’s Some of the participants mentioned that they think it would help
a big step from high school to university”. Interviewee 4 and 2 them in their future career if they perform well in their studies.
both had similar experiences when going to university. The latter One participant said that she thinks she has better opportunities
mentioned, “I didn’t have the work discipline as I never had it in to get a good job later if she performs above average. Interviewee
high school, so here it’s really difficult for me”. 1 stated similar expectations: “In my opinion, it will help me
Living up to expectations make bigger and fast steps in work-life if I have better grades”.
For some students, expectations appear to increase work
pressure. Interview 2 mentioned that students see alumni from 4.1.3 Social environment
their study field achieving great success in their career and that The third big factor in a student’s life according to the
they want to live up to that expectation, which puts pressure on participants, is their social environment. In general, students
them. Another participant noticed that the students are even experienced a relieve of stress during social interaction. The
younger now when they start studying, and the expectations keep commonly mentioned connections in the interviewees’ social
getting higher. Also, “parents are expecting a lot” (interviewee environments, were friends, roommates, family and colleague
2). students. Other interesting insights were provided by the
international students, who have experienced moving to The
Netherlands to study and thus had to adjust to a new environment.

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Social interaction tell her how my day was”. Interviewee 4 also notices not having
The interviewees acknowledged that social interaction is one of family members to rely on and even described it as “feeling way
the most important aspects on the life end of study-life balance. more lonely here”.
Overall, the students viewed social interaction as something fun
and positively contributing to a healthy study-life balance.
4.2 Potential contribution of an app like
Interacting with other individuals was mentioned as being
relaxing, relieving stress and it takes the mind off studies. VIGO to study-life balance
Participants also enjoyed engaging in activities with their social In the second part of the interview, the students were asked what
environment, such as going out, partying together or joining they think the potential contribution of an app like VIGO could
activities from a study association. Interviewee 1 stated that be to their and other students’ study-life balance. Their overall
“talking to people you’re studying with before and after the perception and the usefulness of the app was discussed, feedback
lectures or having lunch together is also some kind of chill was asked on which drivers could be relevant for students and
moment”. the interviewees put forward their own ideas for new features and
improvements to make the app more suitable for students.
One thing that did not go unnoticed, is that during COVID-19
social interaction has been limited. Interviewee 5 said, Overall perception
“Normally I would have many social interactions, but now it’s Generally, students saw value the app VIGO when it was showed
much more that I’m just sitting in my room doing nothing”. Also, to them. Interviewee 4 said that “if there was such an app, I
this interview noticed that having fewer social interactions would definitely want to use it”, interviewee 2 could imagine that
negatively influenced productivity, and that having social contact students would use this app and interviewee 3 thought that the
with others is important: app could be helpful for some people. There were a few aspects
of the app that the students commonly mentioned, which are
“My social environment is really a discussed below.
stress reliever. I get energy from The app gives insights
my social interactions.” One interviewee who usually keeps a journal to reflect on her
day, mentioned that such an app would give more insight than
Social interactions are, however, not always good to clear your her journal does now: “I never know how to organize it properly,
mind, according to some participants. Interviewee 2 and 3 so filling in data points instead of text could be pretty nice”.
noticed that the topic university is frequently discussed during Another interviewee mentioned that he likes that the app gives
social interactions. Interviewee 2 said that it is “stressing that insights into things you have control over and thus can change to
when you would just chill with friends you talk about uni a lot” make them better.
and interviewee 3 noticed that “it is different with friends,
Awareness
because they all study psychology as well, so we sometimes start
talking about it so I don’t completely forget it”. Multiple participants stated that the app would make them more
New social environment aware on various aspects. Interviewee 3 thinks that the data could
give a good overview of study-life balance for people who
Being in a new social environment when moving out with your experience problems with this. Another student stated that “it
parents to study was a topic that frequently arose during the creates awareness of where your energy goes to and where it
interviews. Especially the international students who moved goes wrong with your balance”. Furthermore, one interviewee
away from their home country had interesting experiences with noticed that reflecting on your day could make it easier to see the
this. good, thus that it could make you feel better if you see that there
Adjusting to a new environment were positive aspects in what initially felt like a bad day. Lastly,
interviewee 2 stated that it was important to become more aware:
Some international students recognized that they had to adjust to
the new environment when moving to The Netherlands.
Interviewee 4 noticed difficulties with a different language being
“I think awareness is the first
spoken. According to interviewee 3, it could be stressful to move: step to change”
“I had the luck that I moved in together with people I already
know for a year. Maybe when I had moved in with strangers, I Sharing data with professors
would have more stress”. Overall, interviewee 4 noticed that After explaining that VIGO enables managers to see the
studies were affected by having to adjust: aggregated data from their teams, the students mentioned that it
would be useful if professors would get the aggregated data from
“Especially in the beginning it was hard students. One interviewee stated that “The professors didn’t
to adjust to how everything was really know how much we sacrificed for this module and I think
when they see what we do they are more able to change”
here, and that also really impacted (interviewee 3). Another participant shared this opinion and said
my studies” that it would be useful for professors to get the data to make
changes based on these insights.
Being away from family
Drivers
One other insight that interviewee 2 and 4 brought up, was that it
VIGO currently evaluates the user’s day based on six drivers:
can be difficult at times being away from their families.
energy, space, challenge, support, result and growth (see Figure
Interviewee 2 experienced that it is stressful to only seldom see
2, p.3). The students were asked if these drivers are also relevant
family members due to university and that it is difficult “when
for students.
you know that your family is gathering all together and you are
far away”. Also, this participant missed that it is not really
possible now to “tell my mom that something is bothering me or

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Energy
The students were all positive that energy is a relevant driver for
“It would be useful if I could also
students, because “it’s useful to know if the student is energetic monitor the activities I did in
or not” (interviewee 2) and “how fit you are to learn is a day in the app”
important” (interviewee 3). Interviewee 2 also noticed that it
might be useful for students to monitor why they would or would Monitor study-life balance
not be energized to get insight whether it is because of study work One of the main functionalities of the app that students would be
or because of factors from their personal life. interested to see, is that it can monitor also the life side of their
Space study-life balance. Currently, VIGO is aimed at employees and
thus focused on monitoring only drivers that are relevant for
Space is the driver that seems the least relevant for students,
work. However, the students stated that “for study-life balance,
according to what they said. The sub-drivers were found to be the
there is much more included than only university work. So
least relevant. According to interviewee 2, it depends on the
besides doing the university things in the app, the other stuff
study whether or not it would be relevant and interviewee 3 stated
should be included as well” (interviewee 5).
that “university space could be an influencing factor but most of
the time you sit in your room, therefore I don’t know if space is Social environment
so important for studies”. Another interviewee mentioned that One common suggestion given by the students was to include a
the driver space is now “only about work, but I think it should driver for social environment: “Maybe something could be added
also be about space to do other stuff besides studying”. on social life, that you can reflect if you put effort in your social
Challenge life that day” (interviewee 2). Interviewees 4 and 5 also stated
that it would be interesting to monitor the social environment, as
The driver challenge seems relevant for students, because
it plays a big role in achieving a healthy study-life balance.
“challenge is important in studies” (interviewee 4) and “as a
student you want to be challenged” (interviewee 2). Productivity
Support Another insight that was thought to be useful, is productivity.
Interviewee 1 suggested that rating productivity of your day
Multiple participants stated that support is also an important
could lead to interesting insights combined with, for example, the
driver for students. Interviewee 3 stated that it is useful to
activities you did in a day. Interviewee 1 also said:
monitor if you get support from the university and from family.
Interviewee 4 also mentioned that monitoring support by family
and friends would be insightful.
“If the app would track my
Result
productivity and give
Result was found to be a very important driver, especially for
suggestions on how to make
grades that a student receives (interviewees 2 and 3). One thing this day as productive as
that could be added, according to interviewee 5, is monitoring possible, it would be my daily
daily result: “I think stuff can be added to results as well, like did
I get the most out of my day”. Another insight from interviewee app”
5 was that it could be interesting to include the progress a student Making the app more personal
has made in his or her studies.
It was mentioned that the app could be a bit more personal and
Growth adapted to the user’s needs. One technically advanced, but useful
The students supported the driver growth, because “you grow feature would be that the app learns from the user, according to
with your study” (interviewee 2) and “when you don’t learn interviewee 1. This could provide for multiple interesting
anything from it, I think you won’t be as productive” insights. The app could then act more as a buddy, where it
(interviewee 3). suggests that you do stress-relieving activities when it notices
Ideas for improvement that you have had a bad day. Another improvement recognized
by interviewee 1, would then be that the app could learn “what
The students came forward with ideas on what other features works and what doesn’t for productivity and give suggestions
would be interesting to include and how to improve an app like based on that”. The last idea interviewee 1 had regarding this
VIGO to make it suitable for monitoring study-life balance. learning combined with monitoring the activities you did in a
Activities day, is that users could be shown what their perfect day would
look like regarding productivity, happiness and study-life
Two participants mentioned that it would be useful to monitor
balance.
the activities that one did on a day. Interviewee 2 argued that
noting whether or not you did sports on a day could lead to An overview of the perspectives of the interviewees on the
interesting insights. Interviewee 1 argued that a possible way to potential contribution of an app like VIGO to study-life balance
include this would be to connect the app to other apps on your is displayed in the following table:
mobile device, such as running apps. Furthermore, interviewee 1
shares the view of interviewee 2:

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 Table 2. Perceptions of interviewees on VIGO
Interviewee 1 Interviewee 2 Interviewee 3 Interviewee 4 Interviewee 5
Overall opinion
Could imagine it Would definitely
Useful - Could be helpful -
being used want to use
Gives insights in
Gives insights - - Organized method -
drivers
Awareness of Awareness of
Awareness is the VIGO gives an
Awareness - balance and energy and
first step overview
reflection balance
Professors can make Only useful if they Makes professors
Share data with
changes based on would care about aware of the work - -
professors
insights the data of students
Drivers
Energy - Makes sense Important Useful -
Differentiate per Environment Should include
Space - Not so relevant
study instead of space more aspects
Challenge - Would include Important Important -
Support - Important Would include - Results per day
Growth - Important Important Important -
Ideas
Monitor activities for Include activities
Activities - - -
the day done in a day
Study-life Measure SLB in SLB is more than
- - -
balance (SLB) general university
Social Reflect on social Include social Monitor social
- -
environment life in a day environment interaction
Rate/monitor
Productivity - - - -
productivity
Adapted to your own
More personal - - - -
needs

5. DISCUSSION resistance. From these three groups of factors, study-related

Interpretation of the students’ perspective on study-life activities and social environment are in the control of the
balance students. Ultimately, they have the choice whether or not they go
to university to participate in study-related activities and if they
Looking at the findings of the perspectives of students on study- want to strive for good grades in university, causing self-inflicted
life balance, we see that study-life balance is a complex concept. pressure. Besides, students have control over the amount of time
In the conducted interviews, students identified many factors that they spend on social interaction such as parties and events,
influence their study-life balance. Furthermore, there are many which, if too much, could cause a study-life imbalance.
relations to be found between these factors, making study-life Contrarily, students do not have this immediate control over their
balance seem like a large and complex concept, covering a big personality characteristics. Although it could be possible to
variety of factors which are all related to each other, forming one change these characteristics over time, we could argue that this
large coherent entirety. We could even argue that, due to the is rather a process of change than a single choice.
many cohesive factors involved, study-life balance comes close
to a representation of everything present in a student’s life. Besides these three factors, we discovered more factors that
influence a student’s study-life balance. Students stated that they
From the theory, we identified three groups of factors influencing choose to participate in non-study related activities, mainly
stress levels of students: study-related factors, social student citizenship activities, physical activity and sometimes a
environment and personality (see Figure 1, p.3). Comparing part-time job besides their study. Due to another identified factor
these factors to the findings of the interviews, shows that these which can play a big role in students’ lives, financial pressure,
three factors were mentioned by students as playing a role in their some individuals might involuntarily have to get a part-time job
study-life balance. to cover their expenses. Having a part-time job can be time-
Firstly, we unfolded these three contributing factors. The most intensive, and thus make it more difficult for a student to achieve
mentioned factors within study-related activities were study a good study-life balance. Lastly, we discovered that students
performance and perceived study pressure. For social already have developed methods to manage their study-life
environment, the interviewees indicated that social interactions balance, such as scheduling their day, reflecting on the day,
and being in a new environment were factors that play a big role. establishing a routine and setting clear priorities. We could argue
The identified personality characteristics that influence study-life whether or not students do this consciously to improve their
balance, were mostly discipline, self-control and stress balance. However, it does help them finishing their study work

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whilst also participating in social activities and non-study related These six impact factors in total, of which four choice related,
activities. Thus, ultimately these methods do support with lead us to the following model of study-life balance, where the
achieving of balance. initial three factors are displayed in grey:

Figure 3. Study-life balance model with its identified contributing elements

Interpretation of the potential contribution of an app like is off and whether or not a student experiences stress, is also
VIGO to study-life balance dependent on, for example, their personality. In comparison,
When presented the app VIGO, the students were overall mostly research on work-life balance stated that stress naturally leads to
positive about its potential contribution to their study-life work-life imbalance (e.g. Fleetwood, 2007; Aryee et al., 2005).
balance. Most of the currently included drivers were found to be We identify a difference between study-life balance and work-
useful to monitor. life balance here, since it was found that stress does not
necessarily lead to study-life imbalance. However, being stressed
One of the main concerns was that these factors predominantly can be a good indicator of a study-life imbalance.
monitor drivers associated with work-related activities. We argue
that these could be adjusted to be suitable for study-related Additionally, comparing the study-life balance model (Figure 3)
activities. However, the students expressed that they would to the original model (Figure 1, p.3), we can conclude that we
prefer to be able to monitor all study-life balance related factors. found some new elements. Although financial pressure was
mentioned in research before (e.g. Wright, 1967), we found that
Comparing this to the current version of VIGO for employees, it actually plays an important role in the study-life balance of
we can see a difference in needs. Whereas employees want to those who are in an uncomfortable financial situation. Besides,
measure work-related drivers, students would prefer to measure non-study related activities, especially student citizenship
other drivers as well to get a complete overview of their study- activities and part-time jobs, are elements that have not been
life balance. A possible reason for this is that students struggle to thoroughly discussed in literature. We argue that participating in
achieve a good balance due to the many influencing factors in extra activities has an influence on study-life balance, because
their lives and, therefore, would benefit from having an overview the more elements that have to be balanced, the more difficult the
of these factors. balancing becomes. Lastly, the methods that students currently
Theoretical implications use to manage their balance are a new addition to research on
study-life balance. Although the effectiveness of these methods
The literature mainly focused on factors that influence stress
is influenced by factors such as personality characteristics, we
levels of students and not so much on study-life balance have found that these methods could potentially improve the
influencing factors. Although the most influencing groups of study-life balance of students.
factors influencing stress also influence study-life balance, we
see that study-life imbalance is not per se a consequence of stress.
Students do not necessarily experience stress when their balance

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Limitations and setting priorities. Other possibilities would be to educate
We identify a few limitations within this research. The first students on specific study-life balance influencing factors, such
limitation is that all interviewed students study at the same as how to manage their personal finances to limit the financial
university (University of Twente). Due to the fact that the pressure that students experience.
educational model is not the same at all universities, a For VIGO or other parties who would be interested in developing
consequence of this limitation is that the findings gathered on the an app or other tool which contributes to study-life balance, we
work pressure and workloads at the university could be would recommend taking the findings of this research into
experienced differently by students from other universities. account. Students would like to be able to monitor the activities
However, since trends and other research show that students are they did in a day, their productivity, their social environment, and
experiencing high workloads, we do not expect students from their study-life balance in general. Furthermore, students would
other universities to experience significant differences than the prefer a personalized approach with suggestions based on their
participants of this research. own data.
Another limitation of this research is that, due to lack of time, the
influence of personality on study-life balance is not thoroughly
explored. In this research, only a few characteristics regarding 6. CONCLUSION
personality have been applied to the concept of study-life Students are experiencing increasing amounts of stress and high
balance. However, we assume that personality is a big work pressure. They have difficulties achieving a good study-life
influencing factor of study-life balance. balance, due to the many different coherent influencing factors
on this balance, of which the most important ones are their
The third limitation regards the way the app VIGO was studies, their social environment, the activities they do besides
experienced by the students participating in this research. The their study, financial pressures and their personality.
app and dashboard were explained using screenshots, and for the
face-to-face interviews, the app was shown on a smartphone. Some students already try to manage their study-life balance by
Participants thus evaluated the usefulness of the app based on using various methods, mainly to schedule their time and reflect
screenshots of the app and explanation on what the app does. on their day. An engagement app like VIGO, if personalized for
Although we think the students still clearly understood the students to monitor study-life balance, could be a good step
possibilities and possible implications of such an app, they would towards creating awareness and making students conscious to
have probably had a better view on this if they would have used manage their study-life balance, with the goal to reduce their
the app for some time. stress levels, improve their well-being and performing better at
university.
Future research
Since we found that the concept study-life balance is so complex
with all its coherent influencing factors and that the concept 7. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
study-life balance or work-life balance for students is not I would sincerely like to thank prof. dr. Tanya Bondarouk for her
thoroughly researched yet, we think there are many possibilities valuable insights, feedback, guidance, optimism and enthusiasm
for further research on this topic. during the process of this research.
Once study-life balance and its influencing factors have been I am grateful to Floor van Wingerden and Alexander van der
explored further, it would be interesting to conduct quantitative Heijden, the founders of VIGO, for willing to explain the
research collecting data on which factors have the most influence background of VIGO and the support. I also want to
on a student’s study-life balance. acknowledge my bachelor thesis circle for the sparring and
How a student’s personality influences his or her study-life feedback moments.
balance could also be researched more thoroughly. We assume I would like to thank the participating students for willing to
that there are relationships to be found between a person’s spend their time on the interviews.
personality type (assessed with, for example, a Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator test) and his or her ability to manage study-life
balance.
Multiple students indicated that they would prefer a more
personalized approach when it comes to an app that contributes
to their study-life balance. Besides, some interesting insights
could be derived from the app learning from the user. Since we
assume this would be a technical challenging goal, future
research could explore the possibilities of using, for example,
machine learning to make such an app learn from the user’s input.
Practical recommendations
This research could make students aware of possible factors that
influence their study-life balance. If students want to manage and
achieve a healthy study-life balance, we recommend them to set
priorities and manage their time by using, for example, a time
schedule. Furthermore, reflecting on their day can be a good way
to become aware of what factors positively and negatively
influenced their study-life balance.
For universities, it would be interesting to explore possibilities
on how to support their students in achieving a good study-life
balance. Such possibilities could include educating students on
how to manage their time by, for example, scheduling their day

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9. APPENDIX
Table 3. Quotes students' perspectives on study-life balance
Topic First order open coding Second order open coding Quote Interviewee
A. Study-life balance
Interference
Uni is interfering with chill time It’s difficult to separate uni work from chill time so it’s interfering with each other Interviewee 2
Feeling guilty Yeah, if I know that I still have to do something and then I'm chilling then I’m feeling guilty Interviewee 4
Feeling guilty about studies yeah I don't know how to actually plan for my free time without feeling guilty that I'm missing something out in the studies Interviewee 4
Hard to tell when you're done it’s hard to say at some point okay I’m done for today and then I just relax Interviewee 2
No life Yeah, for these few months it was only university and no life Interviewee 3
Study interfering with personal life Yeah I think my personal life is affected if I’m stressed out by my study life, because if I’m stressed out because of uni or after studying I’m not
Personal life is affected Interviewee 2
in a very good mood usually
Evertime I'm actually doing something that's just my personal life, I still get that studying anxiety that I'm probably procrastinating on
Studying anxiety Interviewee 4
something.
I feel like my most of my day is spent thinking about my study instead of actually putting like okay just this day is for my study and this is
Thinking about study Interviewee 4
for my life.
Can't do other stuff besides uni The main thing is that it is difficult to do other stuff besides university stuff sometimes Interviewee 3
Doesn't interfere if uni is put first But I don’t think my uni life is affected by my personal life because I usually put uni first Interviewee 2
Personal life is impacted Personal life interfering with study So definitely my personal life was like something that impacted my study. Interviewee 4
Suffering The only moments when it was really stressing, was when one of the things I did didn’t go well, then the other stuff also suffered from that Interviewee 5
Extra activities
Doing extra activities counts up I also wanted to do too much. In my board year, I want to do a committee besides it. It just all counts up very quickly. Interviewee 5
The university should take into account that students do a lot besides their study and also for sure encourage it and adapt the study program to
Encourage extra activities Interviewee 5
it.
I actually couldn’t say if I didn’t have work, the honours program and all this stuff whether I would study more. The only thing is that you have
Extra activities fill your mind Extracurricular activities Interviewee 1
less on your mind.
Personal development besides study You do your study because of your future career and there are many students who want to develop themselves also besides their studies. Interviewee 5
Space for extra activities I think a part of it is awareness and that there should be space for it and take this into account in your study program. Interviewee 5
Value in extra activities I think mainly extracurricular activities. These are the things that apparently students see more value in. Interviewee 5
When I’m at the gym I’m completely focused on what I’m doing at the moment and I love it when I’m completely exhausted and put everything
Gym Interviewee 3
in it and then I forget university in that moment
Gym Yeah, for example if I go to the gym then I feel like I have a few hours of not thinking about it Interviewee 4
Gym doesn't clear mind if you’re in the gym you think about school of course, because you are just with yourself. Interviewee 1
Yeah, so not having that me time that I could before and just have some physical activity because that also helps me with the studying and
Me time Interviewee 4
feeling better
Sports Physical activity I do sports to relax and to get my mind free Interviewee 1
Sports when I do sports I don’t think about it [university work] Interviewee 2
sports together in a group, like when I was rowing it was also really nice, because if you’re doing sports in a group you don’t think about
Sports in a group Interviewee 1
school
Volleyball Yeah, if I go to volleyball as well, then I can completely relax Interviewee 4

Volleyball or the gym if I have something planned, for example volleyball or the gym, then I know yeah this time is only for sports and I don't think about studying. Interviewee 4

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Financial situation
Buy books And you also have to buy the books for the module to get good grades. And the books are like a couple of hundred euros every module. Interviewee 1
Financial besides from the study work load, I would see the financial as the biggest part. Interviewee 1
Financial pressure And also the financial pressure is present. Every year we study extra now just costs €2000 without even counting cost of living. Interviewee 5
Money problems Financial pressure to the three dimensions you mentioned I also would definitely add money problems in the general case Interviewee 1
Not able to pay I think that when you’re not able to pay the house where you can live that is a lot of stress. Interviewee 3
If you constantly have this stress that you have to pass courses because of financial pressure, then you make choices at the expense of your
Wellbeing Interviewee 5
wellbeing
When I have days or weeks when I have to do a lot for university, I think I won’t have any time to work and have a private life. So I don’t think
No time to work Interviewee 3
I would have a lot of time for it.
Stress Part-time job besides study And then you need to work and also study and then also friends, I think that’s a lot of stress. Interviewee 3
Maybe also how the person is doing financially because a lot of students might not have financial resources to study and they need to work a
Work for financial resources Interviewee 4
lot. Maybe something like that also impacts, that could be a little factor
Not for everyone I don't know if it's one of the main, but maybe a little sub thing that could be there because it's definitely not for everyone Interviewee 4
Pressure is released I’m in the situation where I don’t have to work [for the money], which is also that a lot of pressure is released. Interviewee 1
Varies per student
Yeah, for me there is no pressure but I know that some people are like always yeah they just look at every euro they spend and I think that
Stressed Interviewee 4
they're really stressed from that as well
Flexibility
Allows activity besides study I think a fixed schedule would be a problem for people who want to be active besides their studies. Interviewee 5
Better time scheduling It’s more flexible and you can schedule your time better. Interviewee 1
Efficiency you can decide for yourself when you would like to work, like what is your most efficient time of the day. Interviewee 1
Having a flexible schedule
Not bound to certain moments what I think is good about IBA is that we of course have to study a lot sometimes, but it is not very bound to certain moments Interviewee 5
Plan your own appointments I think it is important to have the space to plan your own appointments. Interviewee 5
Study when you want to For university you usually have to wake up early but now I can sleep as long as I want because I can do stuff in the evening Interviewee 3
Beneficial if you're disciplined I think if you have the discipline, it is very beneficial if you can schedule your own time when to study. Interviewee 5
A flexible schedule helps me manage my stress levels and balance, but it could be dangerous to get lazy and procrastinate, but I didn’t
Don't procrastinate You need discipline Interviewee 3
experience that until now.
Only for free time I like that [flexibility] as well, but only for my free time, not for my study time Interviewee 4
Personality
Balance Yeah, definitely. It's probably all on me that I don't have that balance. (Personality) Interviewee 4
Discipline It's just me that I'm not really disciplined with the planning and stuff like that Interviewee 4
Discipline
So I procrastinate a lot as well then it all piles up and then I feel bad and I feel guilty and then I feel like I need to be doing something else
Procrastination Interviewee 4
instead of relaxing
Yeah, another thing thing that could be included is like self-confidence and that as well because some people are not confident they also feel like
Self-confidence Self-confidence Interviewee 4
they cannot do their studying and that impacts, like how they see themselves impacts how they do their work
Managing yourself Yes, the personality and how you are capable to manage yourself Interviewee 1
Self-control
Setting priorities If there is support regarding setting priorities, it should be in the first year to set a good starting point. Interviewee 5
Influence Yes, that influences it. I’m not easily stressed as a person and I often think “it will be fine, we’ll see how it works out”. Interviewee 5
Personality and mindset my personality and mindset leads to not being so stressed about deadlines and bad grades Interviewee 3
Stress resistance
I’m very resilient because I just came from my Abitur so I know I need to learn and I need to do stuff for my grade so I’m not very concerned
Resilience Interviewee 3
about it

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Managing balance
I have a schedule where I normally type in the times what I’m going to do at which time, what my top priorities are of the day and also what
Making a time schedule Interviewee 1
kind of sports I’m going to do today.
Making a to do list Yeah, definitely, every day I write down my To Do List and I really try to do everything Interviewee 4
Scheduling your day
Scheduling I think the problem for me is that during the time that is not scheduled I'm usually like I should probably be studying Interviewee 4
Scheduling is beneficial Scheduling your day is a big benefit. Interviewee 1
Start work earlier if I want to meet with friends in the evening, then I start work earlier, so I get my stuff done Interviewee 1
Going out once a week in the week I try to do my uni stuff and I have one day in the week where I go to a party or drink with friends or stuff Interviewee 3
I'm out of my routine so I'm also a bit out of my routine for studying so if I'm not doing that, then I'm also waking up late, just not in the
Routine is beneficial Interviewee 4
Having a routine routine

Start early to finish early Yes, usually if I start really early at like 8 or 9 and then I’m done at 6 and then I studied really well and then I just eat dinner and then chill Interviewee 2

Check accomplishment I look at it and see how much I have accomplished and if I was in time Interviewee 1
Reflecting how much I did I feel like I always need to do something more but if I see that I've done quite a lot already then I feel like okay I actually did something Interviewee 4
Talking about what I did I usually talk to my boyfriend and tell him what I did during the day but sometimes I then realize that I literally only studied Interviewee 2
Think about how to fix mistakes I don’t think about what I could have done different, but rather how to fix the mistakes I made. Interviewee 3
Reflecting on the day
Not that often. I only think about it when I was not able to do something that I wanted, for example, when I realize that I didn’t manage to do
Thinking I didn't do enough Interviewee 3
so much university stuff today, I now have to do way more tomorrow, because the deadline is coming
I always like to look back at how it was going so I'm always like have like a journal like now I'm writing it on my iPad and just write things
Writing a journal Interviewee 4
down but it’s always really not organised
But I think I did have the study-life balance, because in the end I still finished my studies with a grade 7 on average, and that’s something I
Choosing Interviewee 5
chose for then.
And in the beginning students might think oh there are endless possibilities, I can do everything, and then at a certain moment you learn to set
Endless possibilities Interviewee 5
Setting priorities priorities
Importance I want to do a lot, but I know what is important for me at the moment, which is finishing my studies Interviewee 5
Prioritizing But I think many students should develop the skill of prioritizing Interviewee 5
Setting priorities It all comes down to setting priorities Interviewee 5
sometimes I go online and look for like ways to actually how could I improve this so I look up like how to be more disciplined or how to stop
Issues with procrastinating Interviewee 4
procrastinating
Spread the work Procrastination I think it’s okay [the study-life balance], because I divide the work over the module Interviewee 2
I have friends who start 1 week before the exam to even look at the stuff and then they get really stressed. And they just have to work full nights
Start 1 week before exam Interviewee 2
and then don’t have a life at all anymore.

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B. Study
Work pressure
11 hours of studying It’s basically 11 hours of studying [during exam periods] Interviewee 2
Workload is doable Yeah I don't think it's the system because yeah the workload that is given is like doable Interviewee 4
Everything piles up I recognize it [study-life balance problem] with myself. Especially in the busy times when everything is piled up. Interviewee 5
Heavy workload I recognise the heavy workload. Interviewee 2
Less tests is more relaxed the other module was a little bit more relaxed because of more time between tests and less tests Interviewee 3
Pressure is high Workload The pressure is too high for most students. Interviewee 5
Study load varies The modules take 10 weeks, and you don't have the same study load over the 10 weeks. Especially in the exams period it really increases. Interviewee 1
If it’s the beginning of the module I usually just take some hours of the day for university … But when there are exams, basically the whole day
Study load varies Interviewee 2
is evolving around university.
I personally sometimes recognize it myself because some modules are very hard or you have a lot of stuff to do and you don’t do anything else
Study is very busy Interviewee 3
besides studying.
Students have a hard time I can imagine that students have a hard time in their first and second year of studies and that after a while they will find the balance. Interviewee 5
Never had work discipline And when I came here I didn’t have the work discipline as I never had it in high school. So here it's really difficult for me. Interviewee 4
No experience working most of them haven’t worked or had part-time jobs or something. And I can imagine that for them its really tough Interviewee 1
Getting used to high workload Because if you’re used to a high workload then it’s I think easier than if you are not used to it Interviewee 1
Not prepared for high workload
the students are often very young and they have never worked so for them it’s a big step from high school to university because the topics get
Students have never worked Interviewee 1
more difficult, the study load gets higher
Never had to do anything I never really had to do anything for school [high school] Interviewee 2
High school was easier I think for my whole Abitur [high school] I studied as much as I study for one exam now Interviewee 2
you can see how people with our study background are founding companies and getting richer and richer and then people just want to achieve
Achievement Interviewee 2
similar things
Expectations got higher Living up to expectations I would say the students get even younger when they start studying, and then the expectations got higher Interviewee 1
Fulltime job it’s kind of my fulltime job now to be a student, so I expected it to be a lot more. Interviewee 2
Parents expect a lot I think also parents are expecting a lot. Interviewee 2
So I always do my stuff so I know I pass, but I don’t need to do more or less so I don’t stress myself out with that, because I think there’s more
Not doing more than passing Interviewee 3
to life than just good grades and university
Pass is fine Usually during studies and exam then I think a pass is fine but for my thesis I want to get a good grade but I still procrastinate Interviewee 4
Self-inflicted pressure
Setting high goals I’m aiming for cum laude, which of course puts a lot of pressure on myself Interviewee 1
Resit to score higher because then you’re doing the resit to achieve a higher grade. Interviewee 1
Resit to score higher I already passed the exam, but I wanted to get a better grade so I did the resit Interviewee 2
Study performance
Better grades Yes, I think it is because you’re never really done with studying. You can always do more to get better grades. Interviewee 2
Expectation I see it more as my job at the moment to be a student, because that’s kind of what I’m expected to do Interviewee 2
Nervous in exam they are too nervous when they are in the exam or something that they actually don’t get high grades Interviewee 1
Pressure to perform
Not able to do it I think also sometimes I'm scared that I will not be able to do it. Interviewee 4
Pressure I did not join a very active student association, because my first priority was on university because of the pressure of getting the degree. Interviewee 5
Pressure to perform I think mainly the pressure to perform Interviewee 5
Good student I just don’t want to be like a okay student, I want to be a good student, Interviewee 2
Separating yourself from others
Separate yourself you can separate yourself from the other students because of your grades Interviewee 1
Better opportunities I think I have better opportunities to get a good job later if I’m not just below average or average all the time Interviewee 2
Future career
Bigger steps if grades are good in my opinion, it will help me make bigger and faster steps in work life if I have better grades Interviewee 1

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C. Social environment
Social interaction
Activities When they [study association] had activities I went there and then with my roommates going out, going shopping, partying a lot Interviewee 2
[doing stuff with friends is] relieving stress a lot because my friends are also all students so they also all have to study and especially with IBA
Friends Interviewee 2
friends we can compare how much we have studied yet and how prepared we are
During this corona crisis, there’s no social interaction. Normally I would have many social interactions. But if I look at my own productivity
Interactions increase productivity Interviewee 5
now, it’s much more that I’m just sitting in my room doing nothing.
Relaxing Yeah, then I know I can just relax and it takes off my mind from my study (social interaction) Interviewee 4
Hanging out with roommates Social interaction I also like hanging out with roommates, it’s the best thing to just come down and opening up a beer Interviewee 3
Social interaction social interaction with people that are not studying with you is also something which is really beneficial Interviewee 1
Get energy from social interactions My social environment is really a stress reliever. I get energy from my social interactions. Interviewee 5
Talking about uni is stressing what’s also stressing is that when you would just chill usually with friends you kind of talk about uni a lot Interviewee 2
Taking to people is a chill moment Talking to people you’re studying with before and after the lectures or having lunch together is also some kind of chill moment. Interviewee 1

Talking about uni But with friends it’s different, because they all study psychology as well, so sometimes we start talking about it so I don’t completely forget it. Interviewee 3

Being away from home

Adjusting Especially in the beginning the social life, it was hard to adjust how everything was here and that also really impacted my studies Interviewee 4
Different language A different language being spoken here as well Interviewee 4
Adjusting to new environment
I had the luck that I moved in together with people I know already for a year. Maybe when I had moved in with strangers I maybe would have
Moving could be stressing Interviewee 3
more stress
if you study and live in Enschede and you’re from somewhere else in the Netherlands you cannot just go home for a night which is also pretty
Cannot go home Interviewee 2
stressful.
Not seeing family Because of the uni I don’t see my family that much, it’s a bit stressful sometimes Interviewee 2
Being away from family
Missing family gatherings when you know that your family is gathering all together and you are far away that’s I think stressing me out a bit Interviewee 2
Feeling lonely Yeah, you feel way more lonely here. You have only people that are not family to rely on Interviewee 4
Missing mom when I’m at home I can just tell my mom that something is bothering me or tell her how my day was but here that is not really possible Interviewee 2

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 Table 4. Students' perceptions on an engagement app
Topic First order open coding Second order open coding Quote Interviewee
A. The app
Overall perception
Could imagine it being used I could imagine students using this, especially if you talk about it at unis and show it to people. Interviewee 2
Helpful The app would be used Yeah, I think the app could be helpful for a couple of people. Interviewee 3
Definitely want to use If there was such an app I would definitely want to use it Interviewee 4
What I like about this app is that it gives insights into things you do have control over, like the support you could talk with people that make
Gives insights Interviewee 3
Gives insights the day maybe a little bit better
It's an organised method I never know how to organise it properly. So filling in data points instead of text could be pretty nice Interviewee 4
Awareness is good I think awareness is the first step to change Interviewee 2
I think for people who have problems with study-life balance, it could help them to get an overview and get started. But I don’t think for me
Could give an overview Interviewee 3
personally, because I don’t have this problem so often.
it would help me to see what's causing my imbalances and I can see there’s, for example, one thing that's influencing it is always like really
Awareness of causes of imbalance Interviewee 4
Awareness low, this is something I can change
Makes you aware of the good things Yeah, relatively it could have been a good day but there was only one thing that was bad, but reflecting makes it easier to see the good. Interviewee 4
Yeah so they can see if that maybe how they felt about the day wasn't bad because you can see yeah this was good, this was good. That would
Being aware of good things Interviewee 4
be interesting.
Awareness of energy and balance I think it creates awareness of where your energy goes to and where it goes wrong with your balance Interviewee 5

Sharing the insights with uni The factors that are included now would be useful to share with university so, for example, professors can change things based on these insights. Interviewee 1
Sharing data with professors
Professors should care about it if you could make sure that the professors would be caring about the data then it would make sense Interviewee 2
Professors could adapt to students The professors didn’t really know how much we sacrifice for this module and I think when they see what we do they are more able to change. Interviewee 3
Drivers
Monitoring energy makes sense Energy would make sense because it’s useful to know if the student is energetic or not Interviewee 2
I think then you would have to see like students have to differentiate the factors why they would not be energized. And not because of the study
Monitor energy influencers Interviewee 2
Energy work but because of factors from their personal life.
Energy is important Energy should definitely be kept in, how fit you are to learn is important Interviewee 3
Energy would be useful Energy would be useful, because I feel like a lot of students don’t have energy. Interviewee 4
Space also depends on the study because we have to study a lot on our own. So if that’s differentiated between the studies then space would also
Space driver is different per study Interviewee 2
be good
Space, I don’t know, because the university space could be an influencing factor and most of the time you sit on your room, therefore I don’t
Space is not so relevant Interviewee 3
know if space is so important for students
Space
Wouldn't leave space in So space is the only thing I would put out or is not so important. Interviewee 3
Yeah maybe instead of that it could be like more like environments so instead of the space because when you work you have your workspace
Change space to environment Interviewee 4
and but in University it’s always a very changing environments
Space should include more aspects For example, in space it is only about work, but I think it should also be about space to do other stuff besides studying. Interviewee 5

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 Challenge should be included Challenge is also good because as a student you want to be challenged Interviewee 2
Challenge is important Challenge Challenge is I think very important that you know what you do and stuff Interviewee 3
Challenge is important Challenge is important in studies. Interviewee 4
Support driver is important Support is also important Interviewee 2
Support should be included Support Support also, when you for example don’t feel like you get support from the university or you don’t get supported by your family Interviewee 3
Support should be included I think support should also be there, for example from friends or family Interviewee 4
Results one of the most important Results and grades are also important, one of the most important. Interviewee 2
Include results for grades Result Results I think also, that you have a good grade Interviewee 3
Results of the day I think stuff can be added to results as well, like did I get the most out of my day. Interviewee 5
Growth is important Growth [is] also [important], because you grow with your study Interviewee 2
Growth is important Growth And growth yeah, when you don’t learn anything from it I think you won’t be as productive Interviewee 3
Growth is important growth I think is important in studies as well. Interviewee 4
Ideas
Should include activities It would be useful if I could also monitor the activities I did in a day in the app Interviewee 1
Another thing would be that the app could maybe connect to other apps, such as fitness apps. I could imagine that doing some sports or like
Connection to other apps Activities Interviewee 1
running could improve your day
Including activities would be interesting I would agree [that it would be interesting to include activities you did on a day]. For example, sports. Interviewee 2
Monitor study-life balance I think it would be more interesting if the app would measure study-life balance in general. Interviewee 1
Work-life balance But work-life balance is only one thing in the Energy driver. I would make a new driver from that, because it’s much bigger Interviewee 5
Monitor study-life balance
For study-life balance there is much more included than only university work. So besides doing the university things in the app the other stuff
Study-life balance Interviewee 5
should be included as well.
Add something on social life Maybe something could be added on social life, that you can reflect if you put effort in your social life that day Interviewee 2
Social environment would be a nice thing to include, because for example if some people aren't really feeling like themselves in their study, that
Include social environment Social environment Interviewee 4
could also impact their studying
Social I think social should be included, like how do you engage with people Interviewee 5
It would be nice if you could rate the productivity of your day. Then you could, for example, get the insight that waking up at 7am leads to a
Rating productivity Interviewee 1
Productivity more productive day
Monitor productivity If the app would track my productivity and give suggestions on how to make this day as productive as possible, it would be my daily app Interviewee 1
Should be more personal I think the app should a bit more personal and really adapted to your own needs Interviewee 1
Maybe the app could act more as a buddy. It could like suggest you to do some stress relieving activities when it sees that you have had a bad
The app could act as a buddy Interviewee 1
day.
Make it more personal Also, if you would fill in the activities you did in a day, an interesting insight for the dashboard could be, for example, what your perfect day
Insights on your perfect day Interviewee 1
would look like.
Another thing to include could be that the app learns from the person filling in the app. It could, for example, learn what works and what
Learning from the user Interviewee 1
doesn't for productivity and give suggestions based on that.

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