Funded projects
We have run three funding programmes for higher education providers to develop practical and innovative approaches and solutions to support students' mental health:
Student Space: an online platform to support students' mental health and wellbeing
In July 2020 the OfS and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) made £3 million available for Student Minds to lead the development of a targeted programme of mental health support called Student Space. The online platform includes wellbeing information, student stories and a directory of services students can access at their own university or college.
In August 2022, it was announced that Student Minds had received a three-year funding commitment of £250,000 per year from the OfS and the HEFCW to extend the provision for students in England and Wales.
Student mental health: What works
We are undertaking a national programme to identify and mobilise effective practice to support student mental health in the English higher education sector.
A key element of this work will be building a central hub of digital resources to make research and practice accessible to universities and colleges.
work will be delivered by a consortium of organisations, including TASO as the lead partner and What Works Wellbeing, Universities UK, SMaRteN, King's College London, Student Minds and AMOSSHE, to deliver this work.
Read our news item announcing the programme
Read our blog post about the programme
Joint working between providers and the NHS to support student mental health
This work will support the mental health of students through collaboration between higher education providers and the NHS.
Read our news item
Read our briefing exploring the issue
Suicide prevention
Suicide prevention is a national public health issue and every death by suicide is a tragedy. We do not directly regulate providers specifically on suicide prevention and we don't have a role in investigating individual cases of suspected or confirmed suicide among higher education students.
However, we will look at issues that might relate to suicide when we more broadly consider a provider's compliance with our conditions of registration and will take proportionate regulatory action where appropriate.
We work with other government bodies on national-level suicide prevention policies and programmes to embed the specific needs of the student population. The national suicide prevention strategy, implemented locally, identifies universities and colleges as important partners.
Suicide prevention should be part of a whole-institution approach to supporting mental health for all students. To support providers, we have:
Access and participation plans
Our Equality of Opportunity Risk Register (EORR) identifies mental health as a sector wide risk that may affect a student's opportunity to access and succeed in higher education. Providers should consider if the risks identified in the risk register affect their students, and develop ways to reduce the risk, as part of their access and participation plans.
Guidance and collaboration
In addition, we have also:
- produced a mental health briefing note looking at the ways universities and colleges are supporting the mental health needs of their students during the coronavirus pandemic and signposting to sources of advice
- written an Insight brief exploring the differential outcomes for students with a declared mental health condition
- shared effective practice to drive change across the sector
- provided funding and support to Student Minds to develop a University Mental Health Charter
- joined UUK’s Mental Health in HE Advisory Group which is shaping and supporting UUK's programme of work to improve mental health in universities.
