Abstract
The transition into higher education stretches students socially, academically and within their personal lives requiring adaptation and development of resilience. For many, such demands may lead to decreased mental well-being and, for some, mental ill-health.This project aimed to trial simple mental health awareness and well-being tasks with first year undergraduate students, and to determine whether students find these interventions beneficial and worthy of embedding as transition activities within the first-year curriculum. Four activities were trialled with 185 first-year students who reported the activities as beneficial. All activities caused an overall increase in student knowledge of how to maintain good mental well-being. In the light of this project’s findings, such activities are recommended for embedding into the first-year curriculum and throughout higher education.
Highlights
Beginning higher education is challenging for many students and many providers have begun to reflect upon how best to facilitate this transition
This study aims to identify simple interventions that are beneficial to students in helping them to maintain a good mental health and determines if these activities are worthy of embedding into the first year curriculum
Students want transition activities, including those focussing on mental health awareness, well-being and support, embedded into the curriculum
Summary
Beginning higher education is challenging for many students and many providers have begun to reflect upon how best to facilitate this transition. A thoughtful viewpoint of transition describes this time as continuous; incorporating the complex and differing demands on the student (Lizzio, 2001; McNaught, 2012) These demands can affect the students’ mental health throughout their time at University (Cleary et al, 2011; Macaskill, 2012, OfS, 2019) with a quarter of students experiencing suicidal ideation in a 12 month period of Higher Education (Thorley, 2017). Moran and Gonyea (2003) found that embedded support for transition encouraged engagement, maintained social interaction and friendships, and was essential for creating a sense of belonging and a support network for the individual These aspects all improve an individual’s mental health and wellbeing. All too often, first-year undergraduate students experience no mental
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