Enhancing our Whole University Approach to Student Mental Health
Student Mental Health
Challenge Overview
A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (2017) highlights that mental health difficulties are on the increase within the university student population and experienced by different student groups to varying degrees. For example, difficulties are more commonly reported by first-year students, and within this group females rather than males. A difference that has increased over the past 10 years. Furthermore, rates of mental health difficulties are higher amongst specific populations such as those from ethnic minorities (Arday, 2018), lesbian, gay and bisexual (Gonzales et al, 2020) and mature students (Anderson & Miezitis, 1999). Ninety four percent of universities have reported an increase in demand for student wellbeing services, with 61% of these reporting increases of over 25%. Consequently, demand is exceeding the capacity. Promoting wellbeing for university students has therefore become a priority. Student feedback recommends changes to university culture, environment and incorporating approaches within the curriculum to promote good mental health. However, more research is needed to find out how best to make these changes and improve wellbeing. This research also needs to identify how different approaches might work best for different students.
This Grand Challenge offers you a unique opportunity to draw on your experience and knowledge as a university student to help inform several areas of a large Medical Research Council funded research programme on student wellbeing, led by the University of Exeter in collaboration with five other universities across the UK. Your support will ensure the research focusses on areas of most importance to students and ensures the greatest impact to improve emotional wellbeing within the diverse student community.
Enquiry Groups
Groups had the opportunity to shape the focus of their projects within each group by generating ideas that they felt needed to be addressed. Here are some of the areas students were recommended to focus on.
Student wellbeing services, and research into wellbeing, should involve all types of students equally. Achieving this goal can however be difficult. We need to develop strategies to
ensure different voices are heard and maximise representation from, and support for, all communities.
This enquiry group seeks to identify a range of ways to maximise engagement from across the full range of student communities. For example from ethnic minority groups, different genders and sexualities, students with disabilities, neurodivergent students, mature students and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. You will be asked to identify a range of strategies to maximise engagement in both the research and wellbeing services more generally. This will involve highlighting similarities, differences, and unique characteristics associated with different groups and coming up with solutions to adapt research methods accordingly.
Wellbeing cannot be achieved if students don’t feel safe. University culture can change as day turns into night, with increased risk as students head into the city for nights out. There have been several high-profile cases of violence towards students both locally and nationally, which has raised awareness of the vulnerability of certain student groups. Women are particularly at risk and often the focus of campaigns, but men can also be vulnerable and are in fact more likely to be attacked when out at night. There’s been a movement from victim-blaming to education for people who might be perpetrators of violence. But it’s not known how we can achieve this in a university setting.
This enquiry group will feed into the Compassionate Campus workstream of the research project by exploring how we can increase student safety. This will include how to engage different types of students, finding out intervention’s students will find useful, and thinking how we might change the behaviour of those putting safety at risk.
Social Prescribing is where organisations signpost people who may be struggling with their health or wellbeing to community groups who can support them. The idea is that engaging with others will improve wellbeing just as much as seeing someone within the Wellbeing Service or medication. The University of Exeter have a Connect and Discover series of events that are designed to help students connect with others in this way. However, it’s possible that not all students have engaged with this and there are some gaps in what’s provided.
This enquiry group will explore aspects of Social Prescribing that would be useful for students, and how it can be marketed to increase engagement. It’s important that there are community support options for students from all different backgrounds, experiences and interests. This group will find out how we can ensure that we represent and provide social prescribing services for all types of students.
The more people are educated to recognise their emotions, those of their friends and family, the more they can monitor and look after their own mental health. The research project is planning on adapting a mental health literacy course that’s previously been used in Canada for a UK student population. The aim is to ensure the course is relevant for all types of students and addresses their experiences and culture.
This enquiry group will identify students’ gaps in their mental health knowledge and will ensure this course can address these gaps. It will examine the mental health knowledge and tips students consider most useful to learn. Additionally, how the course is presented and help with any changes to ensure it’s student-friendly and relevant to all types of students. The group will also think about how we can try and make all students take this voluntary course, particularly those (for example, men) that generally have lower levels of engagement with developments such as this.
There are several approaches designed to improve student’s mental health and wellbeing through the provision of self-help interventions, for example, digital online self-help therapy to tackle anxiety or depression. More recently, a strength-based self-help workbook-based intervention has been co-produced with members of the Exeter student community to enhance the ability of students to build personal strengths to address challenges faced or bounce back from adversity. We know self-help interventions can be beneficial but also that students don’t always engage with self-help alone and it may do better if there is some form of support.
This enquiry group seeks to gain an understanding regarding preferences in ways to provide support for these self-help interventions, whether delivered via an online platform or workbook. Guided support can be provided in person, by telephone or videoconferencing, via email or within an internet platform. It can be scheduled at regular points or only occur when the student requests it, and some people may not want or benefit from support. As an enquiry group you’ll be asked to consider the most appropriate ways to gather data to inform this area. This will help ensure the range of student communities are represented to identify potential differences in preferences and benefits for different levels and types of support. You’ll be asked to develop a list of recommendations regarding support for self-help that can be directly fed into this research workstream to inform the development of several clinical trials.
Emerging world events such as recent wars in the Ukraine or Afganistan, the global COVID pandemic or natural disasters that affect many counties of the world have an impact on mental health. This impact not only affects the people directly involved, but also groups witnessing the destruction and human suffering on the news, the internet and other channels. Consider a variety of ways that University students can be provided with sources of psychological support to address distress or mental health difficulties that arise as a direct or indirect consequence of emerging life events.
