WIREDGOV

A new taskforce has been set up by Education Secretary Damian Hinds to support students to deal with the challenges that starting university can include to preserve their mental health.

On University Mental Health Day (7 March), Mr Hinds announced that the new taskforce will look at how students moving from sixth-form or college to university can be better supported in their crucial first year, building on the work already underway across the sector to improve support for student mental health.

It follows work by the Department for Education to identify 4 key areas of risk that can affect the mental health of people going to university.  These are:

• Independent living – including things like managing finances, having realistic expectations of student life, as well as alcohol & drugs misuse.
• Independent learning – helping students to engage with their course, cope with their workload and develop their own learning style & skills.
• Healthy relationships – supporting students with the skills to make positive friendships and engage with diverse groups of people.  Other risks can include abusive partners, relationship breakdowns and conflict with others.
• Wellbeing – including loneliness & vulnerability to isolation, social media pressures and ‘perfectionism’. Students may also not know how to access support for their wellbeing.

Members of the new taskforce – which will be known as the Education Transitions Network – will develop measures to help people make a smooth transition into higher education and help students maintain good mental health. 

The network will firstly look at ‘what works’ to help students handle the challenges of moving into higher education and spread good practice from examples of initiatives, such as the University of Huddersfield’s award-winning Flying Start inductions and the University of Portsmouth’s Welcome Ambassadors project, Student Minds’ Transitions and Know Before You Go, as well as measures developed through the Office for Students’ Challenge Competition projects.