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From November 18 to December 5, 2025, Charles University is conducting a survey Monitoring the mental health of students, in which a number of other universities in Czechia also participate.

Students can take part in data collection here or via faculties’ social media channels.

This follow-up monitoring, first conducted in 2023, will allow for comparison of the results with the previous findings on students’ mental health. The same type of questionnaire will be used, this time enriched with a new set of questions providing additional valuable information that is otherwise rarely available. This will enable us to better respond to emerging student needs—both at the university-wide level and within individual faculties.

The survey is conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health (NUDZ) in cooperation with the Association of University Counsellors (AVŠP). At Charles University, the project is coordinated by the Charles University Resilience Centre.

The study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of NUDZ. All collected data will be processed anonymously and confidentially in accordance with the Personal Data Protection Act (No. 110/2019 Coll.). The data will be securely stored in protected electronic repositories. No output report will contain any information that could link respondents to their specific answers.

The pilot study of this questionnaire survey was conducted in autumn 2023 under the professional supervision of NUDZ and yielded alarming results:

• more than 65% of students reported low well-being,

• 45% of students showed signs of moderate to severe anxiety,

• over half of the students exhibited symptoms of moderate to severe depression,

• almost half of the respondents were identified as being at risk of suicidal behaviour.

These findings confirm a trend observed internationally — the mental health of young people has been deteriorating in the long term, with the COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbating this situation. Since most mental health issues develop before the age of 24, the university environment plays a key role in early identification of problems and in providing timely support.