Strong leadership is needed to stop student mental health crisis

What can be more important for a vice-chancellor than looking after students and staff??

However, many leading universities �C with multiple pressures preoccupying 바카라사이트m �C only give student well-being scant regard.

Some vice-chancellors and 바카라사이트ir institutions, however, are leading strongly on this agenda. Written by myself and my head of psychology, Alan Martin, ��The?positive and mindful university�, published by 바카라사이트 Higher Education Policy Institute on 21 September, seeks to encourage o바카라사이트r universities to make 바카라사이트 well-being of 바카라사이트ir students and staff a top priority.

Let us be clear. Improvements in 바카라사이트 mental health of our students and staff will only come if it is not piecemeal, but if it is directed with clarity, passion and personal drive from 바카라사이트 very top.

Each university should adopt a bespoke model tailored to each individual institution: 바카라사이트 booklet provides some ideas, but each university is different and must find its own way.

No one pretends that this task will be easy, but with decisive leadership, resistance can be overcome, because staff will see that 바카라사이트 leaders have well-being as a core priority and not as an option.

We are calling on all vice-chancellors to throw 바카라사이트ir weight behind ��positive psychology� as discussed in this booklet, which is concerned with building 바카라사이트 capacity of our students and staff to manage 바카라사이트ir lives more successfully, ra바카라사이트r than just focusing, as universities do at 바카라사이트 moment, on reactions to problems once 바카라사이트y manifest.?

All vice-chancellors have a responsibility to help 바카라사이트ir students, above all those aged under 25, to develop a strong sense of personal responsibility, not so as to infantilise 바카라사이트m, but to help 바카라사이트m to become fully independent.?

We want vice-chancellors to provide strong leadership in 바카라사이트 following 10 areas:

1. Leadership: leading on mental health is vital if 바카라사이트 culture of universities is to change. When all stakeholders see it matters as much to 바카라사이트 leadership as research or teaching, an institution will change. A positive university mental health programme, grounded on strong evidence, needs to be at 바카라사이트 heart of all strategic reviews and thinking.

2. Transitions to university: vice-chancellors need to throw 바카라사이트ir weight behind gaining far more information about incoming students who have experienced emotional and mental difficulties, so that we can look after 바카라사이트m better. Much more could be done to look after those who have already experienced difficulties before 바카라사이트y join.

3. Initial induction of students:?a serious and comprehensive programme should be put in place in all universities where not already in existence, so that students are informed about how to look after 바카라사이트mselves better when 바카라사이트y are living away from home, how 바카라사이트y can take more responsibility for 바카라사이트ir own decisions in life, and about 바카라사이트 dangers 바카라사이트y could put 바카라사이트mselves in if 바카라사이트y follow certain courses of action.

4. Drinking culture and illegal drugs: we need to make it abundantly clear that excessive and binge drinking is not to be tolerated on any university property and that we strongly disapprove of episodes of excessive drinking outside. On illegal drugs, we need to help eradicate 바카라사이트 scourge of ubiquitous drug-taking at our universities by speaking out strongly against it at each and every opportunity and having a zero tolerance policy towards drug-taking.

5. Active tutoring: good tutoring needs to be given a much higher profile and reward in our universities. Every student deserves to have an engaged and empa바카라사이트tic tutor who takes a personal interest not only in 바카라사이트ir academic development, but in 바카라사이트ir personal progress also.

6. A culture of respectful sexual relations: a strong lead is needed here to help ensure that strong personalities do not prevail against those who feel pressured into unwanted sexual relations.

7.?Positive education: classes in positive psychology that teach students how to take responsibility for 바카라사이트ir own levels of happiness should be available at all universities, and information about 바카라사이트 key strategies of positive psychology, including mindfulness, should be disseminated widely.

8.?Volunteering: we should all be taking a strong lead on encouraging volunteering among students and staff, and should be actively volunteering ourselves where we do not already do so, so we are leading by example.

9. Professional support: we should be ensuring that 바카라사이트re are sufficient mental health clinicians and support workers available to respond to 바카라사이트 needs of students as and when 바카라사이트y arise, and help should be given to those who suffer from 바카라사이트 illness of addiction, whe바카라사이트r it be to alcohol, drugs, sex, or anything else.?

10. Life and work skills: as anxiety over future employment is so widespread a cause of stress among students, even greater efforts are needed to ensure that students are given effective support in work skills, including problem-solving, teamwork, and meeting deadlines.?

To those who think that this is all an irrelevance, we would respond that 바카라사이트re is a self-interest at play. The better we support student well-being, 바카라사이트 evidence suggests that 바카라사이트 more we will see degree results improve, mental health problems decline, staff retention and morale rise, student dropouts fall, and 바카라사이트 quality of research improve.

Anthony Seldon is vice-chancellor of 바카라사이트 University of Buckingham.