How universities can enhance student mental wellbeing: the student perspective

ABSTRACT

The growing prevalence and severity of mental health difficulties across university student populations is a critical issue for universities and their wider communities. Yet little is known about student perspectives on the stressors in university environments and the steps that universities could take to better support student mental wellbeing. This article reports on a study that collected and analyzed 2776 student responses to the question: What can be done to improve student wellbeing? Students made diverse recommendations that fell into seven categories: Academic teachers and teaching practices; student services and support; environment, culture and communication; course design; program administration; assessment; and student society activities. The findings from our study offer important insight to university educators and administrators about the role they can play in better supporting student wellbeing and preventing the high rates of psychological distress. We argue that the process of seeking and acting on students’ suggestions fosters students’ sense of inclusion and empowerment, and this is critical given that the goal of improving student mental wellbeing can only be achieved through an effective partnership between students and institutional actors.

KEYWORDS:

• Student wellbeing
• mental health
• psychological distress
• student experience

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the students who participated in the research, and Samantha Marangell for her assistance with the literature review on the student voice.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Chi Baik http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0480-5522