The Future of Education

University mental wellbeing has gained increasing relevance in both scientific and socio-political agendas. Recent research shows an increase in students' need for psychological support (Allen et al., 2023), and the crucial role faculty plays in promoting such wellbeing (Brewster, 2022). As faculty is often faced with psychology related challenges without having received adequate preparation, many universities have adopted Faculty Development models aimed at providing staff with evidence-based knowledge to inform these important challenges.
A narrative review highlighted the effectiveness of projects such as ABC model at the University of Copenhagen (Nielsen et al., 2024); Professor Hippo-on-campus educational programme at McMaster University (Halladay et al., 2024) and RAKSHAKA framework by King's College London and Manipal University (Goel et al., 2024). These initiatives share a holistic view of university mental wellbeing and the crucial role of synergy between Faculty Development, support services and active collaboration with students. My doctoral research, based on a whole-university approach, seeks to implement a case-study at the IUL Telematic University, focused on online mental wellbeing training for faculty, students and staff.

Keywords: Mental wellbeing, faculty development, whole university approach

REFERENCES

[1] Allen R., Kannangara C., Vyas M. et al. (2023). European university students’ mental health during Covid-19: Exploring attitudes towards Covid-19 and governmental response. Curr Psychol , 42, 20165–20178 

[2] Brewster L., Jones E., Priestley M., Wilbraham S., Spanner L. & Hughes G. (2022) ‘Look after the staff and they would look after the students’ cultures of wellbeing and mental health in the university setting, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 46:4, 548-560

[3] Nielsen, L., Bermejo-Martins, E., Nelausen, M. K., Madsen, C. S., Riva, E., Koushede, V. J., & Meilstrup, C. B. (2024). The ABCs of mental health at the university: a multi-level intervention design for promoting mental well-being. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1382393

[4] Halladay, J., Woock, R., Xu, A., Boutros Salama, M., & Munn, C. (2024). Professor Hippo-on-Campus: Developing and evaluating an educational intervention to build mental health literacy among university faculty and staff. Journal of american college HealtH, 72(8), 2470-2481

[5] Goel, A., Ali, R., Upsher, R., Padickaparambil, S., Byrom, N., & Ramachandran, S. (2024). How the faculty across higher education institutes are facilitated to develop skills on student mental health and well-being?–A scoping review. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education, 1-13