Mental Health Services International Students can Access in UK Higher Education: an Evidence and Gap Map (EGM)

Abstract

Review question / Objective: a. Question • What kind of mental health services that international students can access in UK higher education? b. Objectives • to systematically search and identify the range of mental health services that international students in UK higher education can access. • to gather and display evidence on health care and services to maintain or enhance mental health conditions of mental health services in the UK. • to collect clusters of existing evidence and gaps to inform the potential literature review design. Background: Mental health is already a significant global issue in higher education (Alonso et al., 2018; Auerbach et al., 2016a, 2016b; Mortier et al., 2018). As the WHO argued, there is no health without mental health (DH, 2011; Prince et al., 2007; WHO, 2018, 2021, 2022a). Higher education students who are far away from home, lack social support and face language and cultural differences are the vulnerable populations in terms of mental health compared with home students (Blackmore et al., 2019; Forbes-Mewett & Sawyer, 2016, 2019; Minutillo et al., 2020; Sachpasidi & Georgiadou, 2018; Sherry et al., 2010). As a critical industry, UK higher education has the second-largest group of international higher education students globally (Department for Education & Department for International Trade, 2021; QS, 2019; QS Enrolment Solutions, 2021; Universities UK, 2021a, 2021b). However, compared with home students, international students are less likely to use mental health services in UK higher education. Attention to the mental health conditions of international students in UK higher education has more possibility to be improved in this country (HESA, 2021; Orygen, 2020; Quinn, 2020).