16 May 2023

The health and wellbeing of students has long been a priority for universities in Wales.

Over the past decade we have seen a 450% increase in the number of students declaring a mental health condition on their application to university – and that was before the Covid-19 pandemic struck and brought with it implications for everyone’s mental health.

While it’s important to remember that students are part of the wider population, and experience mental health challenges in much the same way as the rest of society, we must also bear in mind that there are some unique pressures and circumstances that should be factored into both the delivery of education and the provision of health services. The system as a whole is vital to ensuring students can succeed in higher education.

With this in mind, and in the face of increasing pressure on already stretched resources in the wake of the pandemic, Universities Wales convened a working group with input from NUS Wales, ColegauCymru and AMOSSHE to develop some policy proposals for the Welsh Government’s consideration. We felt it was important to bring higher and further education together to develop these proposals as the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill (as it was) had been laid before the Senedd, with plans to draw the tertiary sector together going forward.  

The recommendations highlight areas that could be developed to enhance mental health support for students across Wales. These include parity of experience for students – i.e. recognising that they are part of wider society – support for transitions, understanding the role and remit of NHS services and university support services, effective information sharing, and sustainable, long-term funding. 

Universities Wales reiterated all of these recommendations in our oral and written evidence to the Senedd’s Children, Young People and Education (CYPE) Committee back in November last year.

CYPE report on mental health support in higher education

The Committee recently published its report on mental health support in higher education, with a wide-ranging 33 recommendations for Welsh Government to consider.

On the whole, Universities Wales welcomes the recommendations. However, it will be important for Welsh Government and HEFCW (and subsequently the Commission on Tertiary Education and Research – CTER) to prioritise and strategically focus on the areas that will best improve services and the experience of students.  

The first recommendation in our joint work with NUS Wales, ColegauCymru and AMOSSHE was ensuring parity of experience. Regardless of where a student lives or works, they should be able to access a consistent standard of healthcare support. This means involving students in NHS population planning assessments, and treating students on an equitable footing with the wider population, rather than students being an unaccounted-for additional demand on services.

A common set of principles

In terms of the support available at university, all Welsh universities are signed up to UUK’s Stepchange: mentally healthy universities framework and Suicide Safer guidelines, which advocate for a ‘whole-university’ approach to wellbeing and mental health support for both students and staff. This sets out a common basis for supporting mental health across our universities.

The Committee’s report recommends that CTER develops a common framework for mental health support across the higher education sector, which sets out a baseline while being sufficiently flexible to take account of different institutions’ specific contexts.

Arguably, this framework already exists in higher education in the form of the Stepchange framework. But, putting that to one side, there is an opportunity to use this as a basis for exploring how a common set of principles could be agreed on the role and responsibilities of higher education providers and health providers.

Indeed, the report suggests that Welsh Government begins some scoping work to develop a shared understanding of the roles and responsibilities across healthcare and education for student mental wellbeing.

Working with the health service

At the University of South Wales, we have taken part in the pilot Mental Health University Liaison Service, which has been extremely successful in plugging the gap between NHS and university support services to ensure students are accessing support at the appropriate level.

The liaison service is a HEFCW-funded partnership in south-east Wales between the three universities in Cardiff, and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board. Students can access the scheme via a referral from the University Student Services department, Adult Liaison Psychiatry, or a GP. An NHS mental health team operates within student support services on university campuses providing support for students who require an NHS assessment for moderate mental health problems or more complex long-standing mental health issues.

We welcome the Committee’s recommendation that this model be expanded.

A whole-sector approach

There are some recommendations relating to specific cohorts of students, such as international students and healthcare or placement-based students. Working together to consider the particular challenges that these types of students face could be a sensible next step in seeking a whole-sector approach.

Continuing dialogue between Welsh Government, HEFCW/CTER and the sector will be essential in developing clarity of the roles and remits of healthcare and education providers.

As a sector we have a strong history of working collaboratively with Welsh Government and with one another. I was proud to have chaired the Welsh Government’s higher education response to covid group which showed how we can effectively work together on a Wales-level to tackle complex challenges.

Working collaboratively as a tertiary sector with Welsh Government and the NHS, I am confident that we can continue to build upon existing good practice to enhance support for student mental health and wellbeing across Wales.