Creative Resilience Amongst Creative Students in the Age of Burnout
Creative Resilience Amongst Creative Students in the Age of Burnout

Liz Pienaar
In higher education, creativity is widely recognised as a powerful tool for regulating emotions and managing stress (Xu & Wang, 2022). But what happens when the very source of stress, emotional strain, and potential burnout is the creative programme itself? For students in design, illustration, and other creative disciplines, the pressure to constantly produce original work can erode the joy of creation and compromise emotional wellbeing. Academic burnout, a form of learning burnout common in higher education, is increasingly shaped by the culture of speed and productivity (Wang, Sun, & Wu, 2022). The growing integration of AI into student workflows can amplify this effect, leading to information overload, reduced independent problem-solving, diminished self-management, and a drop in creative exploration (Dong, Wang, & Han, 2025). While AI offers efficiency, it can unintentionally discourage the very innovation and curiosity that creative fields thrive on. In an environment that mirrors the relentless pace of the professional creative industry, students face mounting pressure to “perform” rather than to play. This research explores how cultivating spaces of play and softness, often overlooked in academic settings, can foster creative resilience. By prioritising mindset, experimentation, and joy in making, educators can better equip students to sustain their creativity in the face of stress. In this talk, I explore the lived student experiences of burnout and recovery within creative higher education. And provide insights that inform more human-centred teaching methods and support systems, ensuring students leave not only with technical skills but with the resilience to thrive in a demanding, fast-paced creative industry.
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