University student mental health and wellbeing is a concern, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Loneliness and social isolation are drivers of student mental health problems, amenable to intervention. "Connecting People" was developed and piloted in health and social care services to support people to enhance their social connections.…

Increasing numbers of UK students now seek mental health support while at university. Clear evidence for the best configuration of student support services is lacking. Most service evaluations have focused on counselling -- with little evaluation of low-intensity support services such as non-clinical mental health and well-being teams or student…

Sleep disturbance has harmful psychological and physical effects and due to a range of biopsychosocial and environmental factors, university students are at an increased risk. Despite the importance of this topic, it is under-researched, especially in the UK. The objectives of this study were (1) to investigate the occurrence and nature of sleep…

This study examined sleep and its cognitive and affective correlates in adults with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD), utilizing UK Biobank data. There were no group differences in subjective sleep duration [n = 220 ASD; n = 2200 general population (GP)]. Accelerometer measures of sleep duration or nighttime activity did not differ by…

Student mental health is a critical issue in higher education. It is understood that higher education can act to trigger or exacerbate mental health difficulties, but research in this area has focused primarily on campus environments, identifying stressors such as halls of residence. Since distance learning students disclose mental health issues…

This study extends the doctoral education literature by examining how social support and social identification, as they apply to peers, supervisors, and the academic community, are related to mental wellbeing and psychological distress in doctoral students by using person-centred analysis to create social profiles. Doctoral students (N = 200)…

This is a conceptual paper that examines the emergence of the 'therapeutic university' and considers its potential implications for policy and practice in Higher Education (HE). Concern over the well-being and mental health of university students both in the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally has recently intensified in media, academic and…

University students in the UK have encountered many challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This research aimed to track the mental well-being of a large sample of British university students (n = 554) over a one-year period of the COVID-19 pandemic, capturing data at four time points between May 2020 and May 2021. Overall retention after…

Concerns about mental health difficulties and reduced wellbeing in adolescents are on the rise in public discourses and the media. This study utilised data from the Millennium Cohort Study (Waves 6 and 7) to examine 17- year- olds' mental health and wellbeing in relation to gender and personality traits, and longitudinal differences in social and…

This paper considers the topic of student wellbeing using the lens of a different type of support mechanism -- 'dog borrowing' -- which builds on prior research about emotion work and human-animal interactions but in the context of student transitions and pastoral care in higher education. This novel study was about the experiences of students…

Strengths-based approaches to autism are increasing in research and clinical practice. Such approaches suggest facilitating autistic people to increase the use of their strengths leads to positive outcomes (e.g. improved well-being). However, despite proliferation of strengths-based clinical and educational interventions, these approaches are…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of wellbeing within the university education system by outlining the key issues and benefits and recognising future research on digital well-being for students. The JISC Digital wellbeing paper highlights the many positive and negative impacts associated with digital wellbeing. This…

The current research aimed to evaluate UK student mental health during the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we were interested in exploring factors that contribute to students' anxiety levels about COVID-19. Demographics, mental health symptomatology and well-being-related variables were tested as predictors of COVID-19…

Increasing rates of mental health difficulties for young people in the UK are often described, though seldom from young people's perspective or viewpoint. The Schools NorthEast Healthy MindED Commission works towards supporting schools to understand and mitigate the factors affecting young people's mental health, and through doing so enable better…

In this opinion piece I present a brief introduction to embodiment and offer practical examples of embodied pedagogy. My overarching argument is that embodiment theory and practice merit a paradigmatic status in higher education pedagogies and a sub-theme is that using embodiment as a foundation for pedagogic praxis is usefully done in…