Universities, first and foremost, are about people. So it will be no surprise that we have invested significant time and resources into understanding how health and wellbeing impacts on what we do and how we do it.
Every day, we see the transformational power of the opportunities we create. But we know that we still have work to do to create supportive and inclusive relationships, cultures and environments for all our staff and students.
The importance of vice-chancellors and senior teams leading this work cannot be overstated, and it is a strategic priority for every university. As a sector, we must remain committed to ensuring that all our people can realise their full potential – bringing huge social and economic benefits across our country and beyond.
Our opportunity
The evidence is clear: universities see tremendous benefits when we focus on people, environments, relationships, and policies, and we’re at our best when these elements come together.
Productivity increases and performance improves as people report feeling happier, healthier and more engaged. In many organisations, this impacts the financial, as well as human, health of an organisation. And for us, it also results in improved student satisfaction.
To be truly effective, we need our leaders and managers to be self-aware and supported in their understanding of their own health and wellbeing, and the impact that has on others.
The key to achieving this is how we approach leadership and changing cultures and behaviours for the better.
Our strategic focus on supporting health and wellbeing is clearly important. But to be truly effective, we need our leaders and managers to be self-aware and supported in their understanding of their own health and wellbeing, and the impact that has on others.
A whole university approach
Universities UK (UUK)’s focus on supporting mental health and wellbeing started with a conversation that encouraged a whole university approach to deliver a strategic plan.
Initially, our work focused on creating ‘mentally aware’ and then ‘mentally healthy universities’, able to support students through the stages of promotion, prevention and intervention.
Working with partners, UUK has created a set of tools, guidance, and best practice case studies, and has held a series of roundtables and engagement sessions.
Together, we have refined our approaches and moved into areas including suicide prevention, responding to a suicide and information sharing and the use of trusted contacts in the event of students requiring support through periods of poor mental health.
We’ve worked with the NHS, the third sector, and our staff and students, to develop approaches that fit different contexts, cultural and social needs – and frankly, different funding resources.
We’re also increasingly having conversations in other challenging areas, including sexual harassment, racism, drug and alcohol use, and gambling behaviours across our campuses, as we better understand the cultures and behaviours that can encourage positive change.
Driving this forward
There are two significant pieces of work that are being developed to build on our journey so far.
The first is Student Minds’ university mental health charter. This is a framework to help us measure our impact and effectiveness as progress is made, and it will continue to develop and improve as more universities apply for the charter. Central to the charter is collaboration and continuous improvement, designed to explore all parts of a university’s interaction with students.
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Mental health leadership tool
Building on this work, UUK members, The Watson Practice and colleagues at UUK have co-created a mental health leadership tool. The tool aligns with the charter and UUK’s work to date. It’s where we have identified the biggest opportunity to create significant positive benefit.
We’ve focused on leaders and how they engage with mental health and wellbeing as individuals and teams, and how this then benefits the entire organisation through role-modelling and education.
Be courageous and vulnerable
Leadership teams, Boards and councils are facing increasing pressures. The decisions they take impact our staff, students, and communities. The better equipped they are to make these decisions based on empathy and understanding, the more likely it is that they will create the best outcomes.
By launching the leadership tool and recognising the importance of developing awareness of mental health and wellbeing in our leadership teams, we unlock an opportunity to support and lead staff and student experiences for the better and create healthy universities fit for the future.
I encourage all vice-chancellors, alongside their leadership teams, Boards and Councils, to be both courageous and vulnerable in acknowledging the importance of their own mental health and resilience.
I encourage all vice-chancellors, alongside their leadership teams, Boards and Councils, to be both courageous and vulnerable in acknowledging the importance of their own mental health and resilience.
This will add to our understanding, enhance performance, engagement and satisfaction – and fundamentally, transform opportunities for individuals, families and communities.
