Coming from a background in teaching and university access, I have a personal commitment to understanding the diverse needs of students and the systemic barriers to access they face. Mental health needs are an important part of this. Last year, the theme for World Mental Health Day was ‘Mental Health in an Unequal World’. In a post-lockdown world, such inequality must remain part of our collective consciousness; individual and societal wellbeing should sit at the forefront of policy makers’ minds. The global COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives the world over, and as such it is no surprise that the World Federation for Mental Health has set the theme for this year as ‘Make mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority.’

The long term effects of lockdown are still being felt, despite a large scale return to on campus teaching and learning. Student Minds recently marked the year anniversary of their paper ‘University Mental Health: Life in a Pandemic’, which reported that 74% of students experienced a negative impact on their mental health due to the pandemic. The 2021 Student Experiences Insights Survey by the Office for National Statistics reported that ‘37% of first year students showed moderate to severe symptoms of depression’ and ‘responses from 39% of students indicated that some form of anxiety disorder was likely’. In both cases, these results were far greater than those for the 16-29 years range and the general population. Furthermore, TASO’s 2022 report on what works to tackle student mental health inequalities in higher education concluded that the negative impact of COVID-19 is particularly notable in specific student groups, namely, young carers, students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds and LGBTQ+ students. Therefore it is crucial that students from all backgrounds, especially those from underrepresented groups, are supported consistently and impactfully.

In June 2022 the Department for Education reported their intention to invest £3 million to further unify universities and NHS services around mental health support. However, awareness of the need for investment must be coupled with an evidence-based approach to what works. This is why the Office for Students has appointed TASO to lead a consortium to help higher education providers identify and make use of effective practice in supporting student mental health. This work will lead to the creation of a digital repository of information and resources which the sector can access and apply to improve the efficacy of their mental health practices.

The repository will include input from all five partners as well as mental health professionals and other sector stakeholders to identify effective interventions and support mechanisms, based on the type and strength of evidence available. We hope this repository will be of great use to the sector, and help them improve mental health provision for their students. While some of our findings will be specific to the UK context, we anticipate that others will be relevant for higher education institutions around the world who are seeking to better support students with their mental health.

John Blake, the Director for Fair Access and Participation at the OfS, recently wrote that his interaction with the sector has given him ‘the confidence to move forward with a system of regulation that asks universities and colleges to take a more proactive role in identifying both the risks to equality of opportunity they need to tackle, and what appropriate mitigations they will use.’ I hope this means that mental health intervention and support remain high on the agenda when identifying risks to students achieving their full potential while at university. Conscious engagement with refining practice and broadening the availability of evidence-informed support mechanisms would be very good news ahead of World Mental Health Day 2023.

TASO has launched a call for evidence as part of their student mental health project. Further details can be found here.