Global Flourishing Study
“Flourishing is the relative attainment of a state in which all aspects of a person’s life are good, including the context in which that person lives.”
Tyler Vanderwheel
Global Flourishing
Grad Resources is proud to now be using this “Flourishing Measure” created by Harvard University based on their Holistic Flourishing Framework first published in 2016. The data we collect will be in conjunction with the world’s largest wellbeing study in history and emerging applied research in partnership with Baylor University’s new Institute for Global Human Flourishing.
The Global Flourishing Study is a five-year, longitudinal research project surveying more than 200,000 participants across 22 countries and six continents. The study examines flourishing as a multidimensional concept, including health, happiness, meaning, character, relationships, and financial security, while exploring how personal experiences, culture, and context shape long-term well-being.
These domains strongly align with the Big 6 Needs of Graduate Students that guide the work of Grad Resources:
Financial, Spiritual, Professional, Relational, Academic, and Health (Physical and Psychological).
The study’s early findings affirm what graduate students experience daily, flourishing is not sustained by academic achievement alone. Instead, long-term well-being emerges when students are supported holistically across financial stability, meaningful purpose, professional formation, healthy relationships, academic success, and physical and psychological health.
Grad Flourishing. Global Impact.
Through our role as a research-gathering partner, Grad Resources is contributing graduate student voices to a global body of evidence that will inform higher education, mental health initiatives, and public policy worldwide. This partnership reinforces our commitment to evidence-based strategies that help graduate students not only persist, but truly flourish.
20+
COUNTRIES SELECTED
200K
RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
100+
RESEARCHERS AROUND THE GLOBE
Participate in the Study
We invite graduate students, alumni, faculty, and supporters to participate in the Global Flourishing Study alongside us.
Scan the QR code to take part in this international research effort and help elevate graduate student well-being across the Big 6 Needs.
Your participation strengthens global research and advances a future where graduate students are supported holistically—academically, professionally, relationally, financially, spiritually, and in health.
We want you to flourish!! When you complete this short survey, you’ll get suggested resources near you based on your answers. Then we’ll use our grad community’s collective responses to monitor the wellbeing of grad students in the US over time, but your individual responses will never be shared.