Universities Scotland Student Mental Health Group
The Group works to ensure that higher education, stakeholders, and partner organisations have appropriate and effective action in hand to address the mental health needs of students, promote student mental wellbeing and support students experiencing mental ill-health. The Group is also a source of advice and constructive challenge to government and other stakeholders to address student mental health issues and build, develop and maintain work with key partnerships in this important area.
Convened since 2018, the Group is chaired by Professor Lynn Kilbride, Vice Principal of Academic Development and Student Experience and Executive Lead for Health at Robert Gordon University, with a membership comprising representatives of Mental Health Student Services in each of Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions.
Recent work associated with the group includes Thriving Learners, a study undertaken by Mental Health Foundation (MHF) with funding from the Robertson Trust. Over 15,000 students from all 19 universities in Scotland participated in the study commissioned to understand the current state and prevalence of student mental health and wellbeing in Scotland. The group is currently working on how effectively to implement recommendations from the Thriving Learners report.