During the past project period, the UAS Moves project carried out a pilot to promote student well-being in cooperation with the City of Vantaa and the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS). In the pilot, a service path was developed and evaluated, the purpose of which was to support students with low physical activity in changing their physical activity habits.
In the pilot, cooperation links were created from the FSHS to the City of Vantaa’s Wellbeing mentoring service, which is free lifestyle guidance and exercise counselling for adult residents of the Vantaa-Kerava area.
“From the role of higher education institutions, it is challenging to identify the target group of students who are not physically active in particular and to offer them targeted measures. Of course, we also reach those who are not physically active by implementing measures for the entire higher education community, but in our project, it has been considered necessary to target measures also especially for the benefit of students who are not physically active. Therefore, it was required to create a cooperation link with student health care, where identification and sensitive guidance can be done at a health care professional’s appointment. From there, guidance to available free services, such as support for starting to exercise and other individual lifestyle guidance, was an excellent opportunity to implement with Vantaa’s Wellbeing mentoring.” says Project Manager Nelli Roine from Laurea.
The purpose of the service path was to provide students with a free route through which they could strengthen their motivation and competence to make physical activity choices that promote health and learning under the guidance of professionals. In the pilot, students also had the opportunity to access the Wellbeing mentoring service faster than usual, as a separate quota had been reserved for those referred through the path for spring 2026.
Cooperation across sectors
However, several challenges were quickly identified in the pilot. There was no common referral practice, so in the end, the referral was left to the student himself, i.e. in practice, it was up to the health centre to contact him or send a message from the Maisa service. This made it difficult to demonstrate and document guidance through the path. In addition, the pilot showed that the implementation of information on the possibility of service guidance in student health care requires time and repetition.
“In student health care, it is important to know the service network so that students can be directed to the services that best support their needs. In the future, the way in which students are guaranteed to be referred to the service must be developed and brought up again and again to our professionals.” comments Johanna Mäkelä, physiotherapist at the FSHS, who is responsible for the project cooperation.
Vantaa aims to reach the target group of young adults better than before to engage in Wellbeing mentoring, which is why the cooperation with higher education was meaningful on both sides. Student health care channels and guidance were seen as useful, but during the pilot, there was also discussion about students’ own willingness to seek the service. During the cooperation, questions arose, for example, about whether the lack of guidance among young adults is due to the need for the service, or more to the fact that people are not aware of the service. It is also possible that young students, in particular, do not yet feel that it is important and necessary to examine their lifestyles.
“Preventive lifestyle counselling services are an integral part of the city’s service offering, and the aim is that they form a coherent concept for residents of all ages. This means that referrals to lifestyle counselling services are smooth, and that residents can be offered equal and functional service chains. Cooperation with educational institutions and the FSHS is an essential and important part of strengthening these structures and creating functional pathways. The UAS Moves project has shown a concrete direction for this work: the project has enabled practical experiments and created a foundation for the future.” says Jan-Erik Jäske from Vantaa’s Wellbeing mentoring.
Further funding for UAS Moves secured – what is the future of the service path?
Although it is not possible to assess the scope or exact benefits of the pilot, the project team agrees that there is a place for the service path. Even the referral of one student to well-being mentoring makes the work meaningful. At the same time, it is clear that there is a need for other ways to reach students. During the pilot, it was necessary to conclude that patient registration is not necessarily the best solution for finding a service.
The UAS Moves project has been granted further funding from the Ministry of Education and Culture. The next term of the project is 08/2026–07/2027.
The pilot 2025–2026 showed that leaving the contact to the student does not necessarily activate those who would benefit the most from guidance. On the other hand, meeting students in their own everyday lives can work better, so for example, the implementation of the service directly on campuses and the possibilities of student marketing were left to be considered for the next operating period with a view to further development.
