Students’ suggestions for eliminating bullying at a university

Abstract

Students’ suggestions for how to eliminate bullying at universities were gathered as part of an e-questionnaire sent to each university student (N = 10,551) at a Finnish university. The suggestions (n = 2804) regarding how to address bullying at universities were divided into the following four classes: support (944), punishment (78), support and punishment (65), and no suggestions (1717). Further analysis concerning support revealed the following five categories according to Houses’ (1981) classification: instrumental/material support (n = 265), informational support (n = 263), emotional support (n = 139), and appraisal support (n = 69). In addition, there were 208 inexact suggestions regarding how to stop bullying. Analysis concerning resources for help revealed the following five categories: Finnish Students Health Service/student association/police/university priest (120), university teachers (49), other students/peer support (41) and administration (36). In this classification, there were 698 inexact suggestions. This is a sign of the difficulty in addressing bullying situations.

Keywords:

• higher education
• university student
• bullying
• social support

Notes on Contributors

Matti Meriläinen is a lecturer in the School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. The current themes of research: Students pedagogical well-being at higher education, bullying at university, vocational career decision-making among upper secondary school students. The most relevant publications in the field of psychology of education are “Stress as a barrier to professional development”, “Active and passive – stages in the careers of teachers in the context of small rural schools”, “The effect of study-related burnout on student perceptions”, “Professional competences of young psychologists: the dimensions of self-rated competence domains and their variation in the early years of the psychologist’s career”, “The relation between Finnish university students’ perceived level of study-related burnout, perceptions of the teaching-learning environment and perceived achievement motivation”.

Helena Puhakka is a lecturer in the School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. The current themes of research: bullying at schools and work places, decision-making, Internet addiction and well-being. The most relevant publications in the field of psychology of education are “Dialogical approach applied in group counselling: Case study”.

Hanna-Maija Sinkkonen is a lecturer in the School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. The current themes of research: Socio-emotional difficulties and behavioural problems, bullying, multicultural education, students pedagogical well-being at higher education, vocational career decision-making among upper secondary school students. The most relevant publications in the field of psychology of education are “Bullying at a university: Students’ experiences of bullying”, “Internet use and addiction among Finnish adolescents (15–19 years)”, “Experiences of Finnish teachers working with multicultural students”.