Evaluating student mental health interventions

Following an open call in spring 2024, TASO is working with higher education providers and independent evaluators on three new projects evaluating student mental health interventions.

Each project involves different evaluation methodologies: randomised controlled trials, quasi-experimental designs, and evaluation with small cohorts.

The projects

Find out more about each project.

Using quasi-experimental designs to evaluate mental health and wellbeing interventions

TASO will test the impact of mental health and wellbeing interventions through quasi-experimental methods. These are methods which can establish a causal relationship between an intervention and outcomes, however, they rely on naturally occurring or constructed treatment and comparator groups rather than achieving this through random assignment.

Randomised controlled trials to evaluate wellbeing interventions prompted by analytics

TASO will evaluate a range of wellbeing interventions prompted by analytics. The overarching research question is: what impact do student-support/wellbeing interventions prompted by analytics have on student outcomes?

Evaluation of mental health and wellbeing interventions with small cohorts

TASO will explore the changes brought about by mental health and wellbeing interventions using small n methods (often described as theory based evaluation methods). These approaches are particularly well suited for intervention types that only involve a small number of students.

Previous work

Report: What works to tackle mental health inequalities in higher education

We worked with The Centre for Education and Youth (CfEY) on a project to help us better understand how to support learners with mental health concerns succeed in higher education.

The project began with a rapid evidence review of relevant literature around how mental health may be driving or perpetuating equality gaps in higher education outcomes, and whether interventions exist to combat these inequalities.

To support the findings of this review, CfEY carried out a consultation with a wide range of stakeholders across the higher education and further education sector to explore which mental health interventions are currently being used to address inequalities and how they are being measured and evaluated. The consultation consisted of a survey and roundtable discussions.

Download the full report: What works to tackle mental health inequalities in higher education.

Findings from the project have informed our student mental health project.

If you would like to find out more or have any questions around this project, please get in touch with us at research@taso.org.uk.