The hidden curriculum of endurance: how students’ psychosocial stress becomes normalised in arts higher education

PURPOSE: The deterioration of university students' mental health has become a global public health concern. However, students' well-being in arts higher education remains underexamined, despite evidence that arts students may be especially vulnerable to psychosocial distress. This study explored how students in artistic disciplines experienced psychosocial stressors related to their studies in Czech arts higher education. METHODS: Thirtysemi-structured interviews with students enrolled in visual, audiovisual, and performing arts programmes were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three categories of major psychosocial stressors were identified: institutional, organisational, and interpersonal. Institutional stressors included norms of total commitment, meritocratic constructions of success, and pressure to accumulate social capital. Organisational stressors involved intensive time demands, ambiguous and subjective evaluation practices, and emotionally demanding Final Critiques. Interpersonal stressors involved blurred student-teacher boundaries, intergenerational tensions, and competitive peer dynamics. Across these stressors, a hidden curriculum of endurance emerged through which exhaustion, uncertainty, and self-sacrifice became normalised as part of becoming an artist. CONCLUSIONS: The findings show that psychosocial stressors in arts higher education are socially and institutionally produced and embedded in the everyday conditions of artistic training. Effective responses should address the organisational cultures, pedagogical practices, and relational dynamics through which psychosocial stress is produced and normalised.