UEA secures funding for student mental health research
By: Communications
The UEA Centre for Higher Education Research Practice Policy and Scholarship (CHERPPS), and the Access and Participation Team, have secured funding for two new projects aimed at innovation in understanding what works to support student mental wellbeing.
Student wellbeing and mental health is a high priority for UEA, but there is limited evidence about what works in terms of interventions. The University has been funded by the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO), the 'what works' organisation for Access and Participation Plans, to conduct two groundbreaking projects to understand how to improve student mental health and wellbeing.
In the projects, a randomised control trial will be used to test the effectiveness of focused and student-centred messages to monitor engagement and wellbeing. This project will be evaluated by the King’s College Policy Institute. Find more information on the TASO website.
The University has also been awarded funding to run a quasi-experiment to evaluate the impact of wellbeing workshops for students, evaluated by Ipsos.
Professor Fabio Arico, Director of CHERPPS, said: “CHERPPS is excited to continue working in partnership with TASO to conduct research on student data in an ethical, responsible and useful way. Our commitment to contribute to the HE policy debate is tangible, and we are proud to contribute in making the difference.”
Professor Helena Gillespie, Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student Inclusion, said: “Our Access and Participation Plan team are proud to be working with CHERPPS, TASO and IPSOS to evaluate what works to improve student mental health and wellbeing in this innovative project.”
This project follows on from this team's work last year with TASO to develop a better understanding of institutional data.
As part of UEA’s commitment to widening access and improving the experience of students from disadvantaged groups, the Access and Participation Plan team engage in a wide variety of evaluation projects.
These projects are especially important because they aim to uncover the most robust evidence on what works by using innovative methodologies. Through CHERPPS, academic and professional services colleagues and external organisations are working together in an impactful way to build capacity and to enable the University to be part of sector leading research in this vitally important area.
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