Participation & Networking

Participation is a fundamental principle of the working method in the Student Health Lab. According to the assumption that students are the experts of their own lived-world needs and requirements, they participate in various ways in the development of the Student Health Lab, enriching the implementation of health promotion initiatives with valuable insights.

From involving students through teaching, to the participation of student university groups in projects and the employment of student assistants at the Student Health Lab, to the structural integration of student representatives (e.g., student unions or student committees) in bodies of the Student Health Lab (e.g., Round Table for Student Health or Steering Committee for Health Management), the consideration of student interests is ensured.

Figure: Participation ladder (Kunz et al., 2023)

Furthermore, the Student Health Lab draws on the diverse engagement of individual KIT stakeholders in the implementation of health promotion initiatives, following a holistic institutional approach. These stakeholders contribute to the promotion of student health in both a direct and indirect manner. The goal of the Student Health Lab is to integrate student health as a cross-cutting issue into as many structures and processes at KIT as possible.

This networking of organizational structures is primarily represented by the Round Table for Student Health, where information is exchanged, knowledge is shared, and access to additional resources is created. The added value of this cooperative approach lies particularly in increasing the reach with regard to KIT students, enabling targeted engagement with specific student groups, avoiding the creation of duplicate structures, and enhancing the achievement of goals through the integration of different actor perspectives.

Figure: Network Map (Bachert et al., 2022)