Our Approach to Student Mental Health Evaluation

Assessing the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve student mental health is complex. This guide has been developed as part of the Student Mental Health project, lead by TASO and a consortium of partners; AMOSSHE The Student Services Organisation, SMaRteN/ King’s College London, Student Minds and What Works Wellbeing (WWW).

Our guidance is focused on the evaluation of non-clinical strategies to improve student mental health, for example interventions designed to promote behavioural or lifestyle changes, education, and self-care.

The evaluation process

When to evaluate?

Whether you are adapting practice, or developing your own intervention, it’s vital you embed evaluation.

Effective evaluation doesn’t happen after an intervention takes place; it should be an ongoing process that continuously assesses delivery and outcomes. Starting early is ideal, but evaluations can also be applied to pre-existing or completed activities.

Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (MEF)

TASO’s Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (MEF) emphasises outcome-driven evaluation, implementation, and process evaluation to determine the most effective interventions for student mental health and wellbeing.

The MEF comprises four critical stages in the evaluation plan, starting with creating your Theory of Change in ‘Step 1: Diagnose’ and concluding with discussing findings in ‘Step 4: Reflect’.

This approach is cyclical. Each stage’s feedback shapes the next one, ensuring constant refinement. For instance, ‘Step 3: Measure’ insights can alter the Theory of Change in ‘Step 4: Reflect’.

Here we have adapted the MEF to integrate advice which is particularly relevant to evaluating interventions designed to support student mental health.

The next sections will guide you through the process step-by-step. For the full MEF, which is more general and relates to evaluation of all activities to improve student access and success, please see TASO’s approach to evaluation page.

Key Resources

Below you will find key guidance documents that will help you on your evaluation journey.

Guidance on adapting practice to your context

The guidance on outcome measures in a non-clinical context provides a set of validated scales that can be used to measure student mental health.

Guidance on outcome measures in a non-clinical context

The guidance on adapting practice to your context sets out clear principles and questions that help you mitigate risks when implementing and evaluating an intervention developed in a different context.