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For several decades, universities have sought to promote better mental health amongst students. For example, universities now have formal institutional arrangements to postpone deadlines for students where there are mitigating circumstances, such as ill health. Such provisions might be understood as praiseworthy cases of institutional compassion. But, empirical research is needed to investigate how these measures play out in practice. This paper draws on ethnographic research in several UK universities to explore the experiences of staff responsible for the enactment of mitigating circumstance provisions. We find staff members sympathetic to the aims of the measures but also sceptical, and in some cases angry, because they find that the provisions have unwanted and undesirable effects. This paper uses the wider social science literature on bureaucracy to consider why this might be the case and raises questions about the capacity of institutions to enact ethical ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In university settings, peer support brings people together based on their student identity. Peer support has been advocated as an innovative intervention to aid student mental health and wellbeing as part of a whole university approach, especially post-pandemic when student support is critical. While the literature describes three types of university peer support for student mental health and wellbeing, peer-led support groups, peer mentoring, and peer learning, the sector lacks agreed definitions for these interventions. Formal reporting on peer support initiatives is rare, suggesting further types of peer support practice may exist. This qualitative study, comprising semi-structured interviews with 16 university staff members at 14 different institutions, aimed to generate comprehensive definitions of the types of peer support used in the sector through template analysis. The study also sought to understand the current practice, experiences, and challenges around implementing peer support interventions for undergraduate and postgraduate students' mental health and wellbeing from the perspective of the staff who support and coordinate these programmes. Five types of peer support were identified and defined. In addition, the challenges of engagement, resource and capacity, and evaluation were highlighted. Finally, lessons learnt provided potential ways to address the challenges outlined and provided sector guidance for further developing peer support as part of a whole university approach to student mental health and wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While there is increased concern around mental health problems in universities, the experience of students with eating disorders (EDs) has received less attention. This is problematic as the detrimental consequences of a lack of adequate support are profound. Methods: A qualitative study was adopted to investigate students' perspectives of the availability, accessibility and suitability of support services. One hundred university students with experience of EDs completed an online survey. A further 18 students completed semi-structured interviews. Descriptive data are reported alongside analysis of qualitative data. Results: Three overarching themes were identified; awareness of support, confidence in asking for help and early experiences with services. Most students were aware of support through their GP and university counselling services. Few identified ED-specific sources of support. Barriers to help-seeking included self-stigma and gaps in service availability. Early experiences with services were often negative, problems included; difficulty accessing services, a lack of ED specific support and continuity of care between home and university. Conclusions: There is substantive progress to be made in ensuring that students with EDs receive the support they need to thrive at university. While it is important that good treatments exist, the pathway to accessing these treatments equally important. As universities increasingly recognise the need for action around student mental health attention must also be directed towards EDs and the provision of specific services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: When experiencing mental health difficulties, university students turn to their friends for support. This study assessed the consequences of caregiving among a university sample, identifying predictors of caregiving burden among students. Methods: A total of 79 students with experience of supporting a friend with mental health difficulties were recruited through a UK student mental health charity to complete an online survey. Alongside qualitative data, the online survey used the Experience of Caregiving Inventory and the Involvement Evaluation Questionnaire as measures of the consequences of caregiving. Results: Students supporting friends, housemates or partners were found to experience significant consequences of caregiving. Frequency of face‐to‐face contact and duration of illness predicted more negative consequences of caregiving, but these relationships were not straightforward. The presence and intensity of professional support did not influence the experience of caregiving. Conclusions: The study suggests that the impact of supporting friends with mental health difficulties is not insubstantial for students. Broadening the network of informal social support may help improve the experience for students supporting a friend, but currently, contact with professional services appears to have a limited effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As concerns around student mental health increase, universities are looking at preventative and universal interventions. The aim was to conduct a systematic review of curriculum-embedded interventions that target student mental health and wellbeing at university. This was a systematic review of longitudinal pre-/post-studies of curriculum-embedded interventions to improve the mental health and wellbeing of students. Seven electronic databases were searched from June 2015 to May 2020. The vote counting method was used to synthesise studies. Forty-six studies were included in the review. Studies were heterogeneous, and mostly underpowered and rated 'poor' in the risk of bias assessment due to poor and inconsistent reporting. Overall, most curriculum-embedded interventions did not influence stress or anxiety. There is no strong evidence to support the impact of curriculum-embedded interventions for improving student mental health or wellbeing. Greater funding opportunities would allow for multi-programme and inter-institutional collaboration to improve the power of studies. Improved quality of reporting would enable high-quality meta-analyses, optimizing conclusions being drawn. • Evidence to support student wellbeing curriculum-embedded interventions is limited. • Many studies were rated poor risk of bias due to inconsistent reporting. • Consistency of wellbeing outcomes could improve synthesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]