Further Resources
Alongside funding a range of researchers across the UK, to help us develop the sector's understanding of student mental health concerns and the priorities needing action, members of the central leadership team undertook a range of research and priority setting exercises with students.
Outputs included contributions to published mental health journals (linked below) but activities also resulted in a number of guidance documents and toolkits which are detailed below and can also be accessed on KCL's online research repository PURE.
Outputs included contributions to published mental health journals (linked below) but activities also resulted in a number of guidance documents and toolkits which are detailed below and can also be accessed on KCL's online research repository PURE.
Key Questions: Research Priorities for Student Mental Health
This project engaged students as co-creators and peer researchers, many of whom had lived experience with mental health issues and also functioned as a priority setting exercise helping to shape the funding criteria for subsequent SMaRteN grants and ensure the research we supported would actually address the struggles of the UK student population.
Student researchers played active roles in all phases of the project, from methodology design, participant recruitment, data analysis, to authoring the final report. This model of empowering students as researchers has been highly beneficial and is seen as a promising approach to bridging the gap between student experiences and academic research.
The research team was made up of various stakeholders including clinical psychologists, tutors, and academic researchers. The project elicited responses from nearly 400 UK university students and published its findings in May 2022.
Key questions: research priorities for student mental health
Katie Sampson, Michael Priestley, Alyson L. Dodd, Emma Broglia, Til Wykes, Dan Robotham, Katie Tyrrell, Marta Ortega Vega and Nicola C. Byrom
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.61
Student researchers played active roles in all phases of the project, from methodology design, participant recruitment, data analysis, to authoring the final report. This model of empowering students as researchers has been highly beneficial and is seen as a promising approach to bridging the gap between student experiences and academic research.
The research team was made up of various stakeholders including clinical psychologists, tutors, and academic researchers. The project elicited responses from nearly 400 UK university students and published its findings in May 2022.
Key questions: research priorities for student mental health
Katie Sampson, Michael Priestley, Alyson L. Dodd, Emma Broglia, Til Wykes, Dan Robotham, Katie Tyrrell, Marta Ortega Vega and Nicola C. Byrom
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2022.61
Measuring Wellbeing in the Student Population
Our ‘Measuring Wellbeing in the Student Population’ report, led by Alyson Dodd and Nicola Byrom, is the result of a sector-wide consultation that included undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics and researchers, student services colleagues, those working in Higher Education management and policy, and those working in relevant organisations.
This is intended to be a practical tool for universities and relevant organisations to make informed decisions about how they measure well-being and yield opportunities for shared knowledge and collaboration across the sector, as well as help universities implement positive changes to support the well-being of their students.
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-141
This is intended to be a practical tool for universities and relevant organisations to make informed decisions about how they measure well-being and yield opportunities for shared knowledge and collaboration across the sector, as well as help universities implement positive changes to support the well-being of their students.
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-141
Review of National Surveys
SMaRteN and NatCen, Britain's leading independent social research institute, have collaborated to produce a guide to national surveys, many of which give data and measurement scales used in mental health in the general population. This comprehensive summary of national surveys is intended as a helpful resource for those looking to measure and study the student population and their mental health.
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-012
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-012
Measuring Psychological Wellbeing and Mental Health in University Student Cohorts
This is the guidance toolkit developed through a project we funded in our 2020 round. You can read more about the development of the work and the team behind it on our website here.
The project aimed to provide a starting point for the building up of evidence concerning the rates of student health problems, identify risks and protective factors and how to intervene to prevent and detect difficulties. By using cross-sector consensus groups, including student representatives, to learn more about challenges and priorities, the team have generated guidance for universities looking to undertake longitudinal studies. A big part of this has been around establishing agreement across the sector about procedures for collecting data including which standardised measures to use and explore the opportunities for data-linkage across universities.
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-142
The project aimed to provide a starting point for the building up of evidence concerning the rates of student health problems, identify risks and protective factors and how to intervene to prevent and detect difficulties. By using cross-sector consensus groups, including student representatives, to learn more about challenges and priorities, the team have generated guidance for universities looking to undertake longitudinal studies. A big part of this has been around establishing agreement across the sector about procedures for collecting data including which standardised measures to use and explore the opportunities for data-linkage across universities.
DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.18742/pub01-142
COVID-19 and the Research Community: The challenges of lockdown for early-career researchers
In the earlier stages of the pandemic, we worked with Vitae to examine the impact of COVID-19 on the working lives of doctoral and early career researchers. It was clear that COVID-19 and the associated lock down was causing substantive disruption to the study and work of researchers across the UK. The pandemic response varied across universities and research funders, so we wanted to try and develop a national picture for how these groups were being affected.
The survey included questions relating to the impact of COVID-19 on research work, mental wellbeing, and social connection. Furthermore, we explored changes to employment outside of academia, such as living arrangements and caring arrangements, and the consequent effect of these changes on research work.
As the pandemic progressed, so too did our project. It was clear that COVID-19 was to be a feature of lives for much longer than initially anticipated and so we staggered the release of our findings, to provide some initial results and suggestions whilst also working on a broader report on the challenges and benefits of the lockdown, which was released at the end of 2021.
Preliminary Findings DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59634
Data: https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Impact_of_COVID_19_on_Doctoral_and_Early_Career_Researchers/12361493
Final Report DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00795-4
The survey included questions relating to the impact of COVID-19 on research work, mental wellbeing, and social connection. Furthermore, we explored changes to employment outside of academia, such as living arrangements and caring arrangements, and the consequent effect of these changes on research work.
As the pandemic progressed, so too did our project. It was clear that COVID-19 was to be a feature of lives for much longer than initially anticipated and so we staggered the release of our findings, to provide some initial results and suggestions whilst also working on a broader report on the challenges and benefits of the lockdown, which was released at the end of 2021.
Preliminary Findings DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59634
Data: https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Impact_of_COVID_19_on_Doctoral_and_Early_Career_Researchers/12361493
Final Report DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00795-4
Engagement Toolkit
This resource pack outlines the benefits of engagement with students and other key stakeholders in the Higher Education sector. It also discusses the challenges, how these might be navigated, and resources and practices that would support engagement. This is based on what we have learned as a network, and will complement and signpost to existing resources. There are lots of different ways to involve non-research stakeholders, and we have provided case examples to showcase all the different things we have done during SMaRteN as well as provide guidance for the sector.
This guidance is also aimed at students and other key stakeholders who are interested in getting involved in research.
Final Report: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/how-to-get-engagement-right-in-mental-health-research-lessons-fro
This guidance is also aimed at students and other key stakeholders who are interested in getting involved in research.
Final Report: https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/how-to-get-engagement-right-in-mental-health-research-lessons-fro