The worldwide increase in the number of disorders requiring rehabilitation is weighing more and more on healthcare systems, seriously affecting the quality of life of patients. Emergent technologies and techniques should be used more and more in both physical and psychological rehabilitation, after a thorough study of their potential and effects. Our paper presents an original virtual reality-based system including gamified immersive physio-psychological exercises, which was tested in a clinical setting with 25 patients suffering from various musculoskeletal, neuromotor, or mental disorders. A thorough testing protocol was followed during a two-week period, including repeated trials, progress tracking, and objective and subjective instruments used for data collection. A statistical analysis helped us identify interesting correlations between complex virtual reality games and people’s performance, and the high level of relaxation and stress relief (4.57 out of 5 across all games) which can be offered by VR-based psychotherapy exercises, as well as the increased ease of use (4.26 out of 5 perceived across all games) of properly designed training exercises regardless of patients’ level of VR experience (84% of patients with no or low experience and no patient with high experience).

Workaholism and perfectionism have increasingly been identified as significant obstacles to effective lifelong learning and skills development, ultimately undermining long-term career adaptability and organizational resilience. This study explores the predictive role of perfectionism and professional workaholism, with a particular focus on their implications for continuous education and occupational sustainability—defined as employees’ ability to remain adaptable and resilient over time. Using a cross-sectional quantitative design, data were collected from 105 participants (54 IT professionals and 51 nurses) who completed standardized measures of perfectionism and workaholism and reported their cognitive–emotional readiness for further training. Four regression models were employed to assess the impact of the three perfectionism dimensions and profession on overall workaholism and its subcomponents (excessive work, compulsive work, supplementary work). Socially prescribed perfectionism emerged as a strong predictor, accounting for over one-third of the variance in workaholism (β = 0.37; R²_adj = 0.368; p < 0.001), while self-oriented perfectionism significantly predicted excessive work (β = 0.25; p = 0.015). Professional domain had no significant effect, indicating the trans-professional nature of these psychological barriers. Additionally, workaholism was associated with reduced cognitive–emotional availability for ongoing training, highlighting its detrimental effects on lifelong learning. Limitations include the cross-sectional design and reliance on convenience sampling. From a practical perspective, the findings support interventions targeting maladaptive perfectionism, aiming to enhance engagement in continuous professional education and foster sustainable work environments, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4 and SDG 8).

Background and Objectives: Young people of all ages are now prematurely overexposed to a tech-addicted life, with negative psychological, physiological, sociological, and educational effects. Ease of access to and normalization of exposure to technology are indicated as the main causes of internet addiction and a mental health concern, especially in Romania, a country with widespread and easy access to the internet. Methods: This exploratory cross-sectional study with 132 participants investigated the relationship between emotional regulation difficulties (ERDs) and the risk of internet addiction (IA) among medical and technical students—two educational cultures defined by intense educational and emotional stress—with the aim of identifying specific patterns of variability. Standardized self-report data were collected, and specific descriptive and correlational statistical methods were used. Results: Key findings suggest similar moderate difficulty in emotional regulation for each student sample and normal-to-mild internet use for technical and medical students. A moderately strong Pearson correlation was observed between internet addiction and emotional regulation difficulties across the entire group of students (r = 0.54, p < 0.001). However, higher levels of emotional dysregulation and internet addiction risk were evident for the medical students. Conclusions: These results suggest that IA is closely linked to ERD rather than to the exposure to technology itself, as we presumed in the case of technical students. Moreover, medical students have a greater need for institutional support measures than their technical peers to cope with a highly challenging educational environment that exceeds individual levels of effective self-regulation.

The rapid expansion of esports within higher education, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has raised important questions regarding their impact on students’ physical and psychological development. While traditional sports are well known for their benefits on motor and physical skills, esports primarily engage cognitive processes through sustained interaction with digital environments. This study compares motor skills and cognitive performance among higher education male students participating in esports and traditional sports in a post-pandemic context. The present study employs a quantitative, comparative, cross-sectional design to examine differences in motor skills (using standardized physical tests) and cognitive performance (focused attention, short-term memory, and information processing speed) between higher education male students engaged in esports and those participating in traditional sports. Male students engaged in traditional sports demonstrated superior motor outcomes, particularly in muscle strength and postural control. Cognitive performance was comparable between groups, with a slight advantage for traditional sports participants in focused attention and processing speed. Although esports may support certain aspects of cognitive performance to a degree comparable with traditional sports, they do not provide equivalent benefits in terms of motor and postural development. These results highlight the importance of maintaining physical activity within university settings and suggest that esports should complement rather than replace traditional sports in higher education programs.

Explicit gender stereotypes are shifting toward neutrality, yet how widely a stereotype is endorsed and how consistently it appears across domains within those who endorse it are separable properties of a stereotype climate. The same Romanian adults, parents alongside teachers and school counsellors (N = 121), reported gender-stereotyped beliefs about children’s play and traits in the abstract, together with two applied judgements: gender-differentiated educational expectations and gender suitability of occupations. Stereotyped judgement covaried across all three domains, substantially among parents and moderately among teachers. This cross-domain covariation indexes consistency within respondents rather than a common latent construct, which the confirmatory models did not support. Stereotyping was voiced more strongly as abstract belief than in either applied domain. Explicitly gender-typing occupations was a minority position, yet those who did so held the strongest beliefs, a concentration that direction-cancelling coding rendered undetectable. Because gendered channelling is concentrated rather than diffuse, awareness work is better targeted than universal and better timed before high-stakes transitions such as allocation to high-school tracks. Teachers resembled parents, suggesting professional training does not by itself displace such judgement. Where access is no longer the binding constraint, monitoring that tracks only how prevalent gender bias is will miss what remains coherent in a shrinking minority.

In the current international context, in which university mergers have gained high importance not only for higher education institutions, but also for state and governmental policy makers, the need for an analytical approach has become more important than ever. The goal of the present study is to review the existing literature on higher education mergers, analyzing their national system outcomes, the results and lessons from which other countries may benefit, as well as the research methods used to evaluate the success of failure of university mergers. With this study and the ones that follow, we want to build a knowledge base in order to serve other higher education merger initiatives, in a world where this phenomenon will become more and more a necessity. By analyzing the specialized literature on higher education mergers in Europe but also on other continents, with an extend on the first university mergers in Romania, this study represents a synthetic approach of the main theoretical aspects, objectives, process specifications and results analyzed and compared in previous theoretical studies. The paper focusses on international information, such as empirical research, national policies, laws and conceptual frameworks, to highlight most important themes and perspectives in this domain. Following and analyzing the existing research on the subject, this paper aims to contribute in developing a systematic understanding of the reasons, objectives and outcomes mergers in higher education have, considering also their limitations and potential benefits on the entire international higher education paradigm. The conclusions show the gaps in the existing literature and the need for further investigation and analysis, as well as the need of higher education initiatives to adapt to the context, benefiting from the proven results of other similar initiatives.