Stirling University Students’ Union are pro-actively combating the stress that their students will go through during the exam period this year, although some stress relieving events have hit trouble with health and safety.
The Scottish university is organising events for students to take part in, in order to help reduce stress during exam time and for when dissertation deadlines loom. These include massages, film nights and even a bouncy castle. It would also have included bringing a petting zoo to the students, but PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) stepped in and expressed their concerns.
Richard Raymond, the union’s vice president spoke on behalf of the union. “At the beginning of the year, we started looking at what we could do for planning de-stress events for students round exam times and when dissertations are due” he said.
“A petting zoo was mentioned as part of the plans… PETA got in touch to express their concerns around petting zoos. We did a bit more research and agreed that it wasn’t something that we would hold as we couldn’t guarantee the treatment of the animals visiting [at the hands of their owners].”
PETA have concerns both in the care the owners of petting zoos treat the animals with, and the fact that travel cages can cause high levels of stress in animals.
All sorts of mental issues, such as depression and anxiety, can arise from education, due to the high pressure of exams and dissertations, and the consequences of performing poorly. It is promising that the union is striving to provide stress management for the students they represent.
Dundee University report they are planning to bring in similar measures to aid their students.
