BU Research Blog

This week is Eating Disorder Awareness Week. BU is putting on a series of free events to promote understanding about eating disorders and to encourage open and inclusive discussion.

As part of BU’s programme of Fair Access Research we are examining the how students experience university in different ways. And this includes how paying attention to students’ health and wellbeing.

Student health and wellbeing is a vitally important issue of universities. A recent survey by the NUS found that 78 per cent of students said they experienced mental health issues over the last year. More than half of the students said that they sought no support.

In a report to HEFCE it was found that students with mental health issues and social/communicative impairments (such as autism) have doubled since 2008-09. These significant increases are impacting the structures of support that institutions have in place, including academic support

Living with challenging health and wellbeing issues, and not always seeking support, shapes whether or not you stay and impacts upon attainment. It re-orients (or, perhaps, disorients) your whole student experience.

 We  are surveying academic staff to find out more about how they understand their role in supporting students’ health and wellbeing.

We have developed a short survey for you all to complete. It should take no more than 10 minutes to complete and we hope that it will lead us to develop ways to support you support your students.

Many thanks to all those who have completed the survey already (we’ve had a terrific response so far!). The survey will remain open for a few more weeks to enable as many of you as possible to share your experiences and feelings on this really important issue.

To complete they survey click here. Once completed please share with your colleagues. 

If you want any more information about the survey please email Alex on awardrop@bournemouth.ac.uk

For more information about the Fair Access Research project please email the Principal Investigators, Dr Vanessa Heaslip (vheaslip@bournemouth.ac.uk) and Dr Clive Hunt (chunt@bournemouth.ac.uk).