Sometimes people ask me what is student experience? I think it's best explained by everything that happens to students while they're at university. So, it's partly about the education they receive, but it's also about where they live, what social activities they engage with, how they use the facilities on campus, and overall of course, most importantly, how much they enjoy that and how much is beneficial to them.
In my role as Pro Vice Chancellor for Student Experience I have three main areas of responsibility. One is student wellbeing. The second one is engaging and communicating with students. And the third one is inclusion; this means ensuring that all students at the University feel they have a place with us and feel comfortable here at Bristol.
And we've taken what's called the Universities UK Step Change approach towards mental health. We believe that it's really important as university leaders to show that mental health is something we should all be talking about.
We should ensure that we prevent people's mental health becoming worse while they're a university, we should help them to receive the right interventions they need if their mental health does deteriorate, and we should support them throughout that process. In order to do this, we need to do research that tells us what the best way to support young people with their mental health.
The Elizabeth Blackwell Institute Young People’s Mental Health research initiative at the University of Bristol is doing just that. Investing in research is part of the University-wide commitment to improving student mental health and wellbeing and was one of the commitments in the Student Mental Health Strategy.
There are four projects currently being funded as part of this initiative, looking at: social media; barriers to accessing student support; provision of online suicide resources; and supporting students with autism. Further projects are due to be funded this year after a second funding call is announced mid-2020.
In addition to the funded projects, the initiative brings together all those working in student and young people’s mental health research from across the University to connect and collaborate on research in this area. The initiative includes representatives from the Student Union; Student Services; Students Health Service; Development and Alumni Relations Office; Brigstow Institute; Bristol Health Partners; and academics from across the University representing all Faculties.
Mental health is one of the most challenging public health issues of our time. Nationally, and indeed globally, there is increasing concern about mental health challenges facing young people as a result of the growing pressures of living, studying and working in today’s world. We hope this research will help us to understand why young people are struggling with mental health nowadays to work out the most effective things to do if young people find their mental health isn't as good as they would like it to be. Knowing what the issues are will help us deliver better support to our students when they come to the University of Bristol - and help to inform mental health and wellbeing initiatives for young people at other universities across the UK, and potentially even internationally.
University Mental Health Day brings together the university community to make mental health a university-wide priority and create ongoing year-round change to the future of student mental health. These words couldn’t be truer here at Bristol, with a university-wide commitment to improving student mental health and wellbeing, underpinned by relevant, robust research.