The Flourishing Student – 2nd edition

A practical guide to promote mental fitness, wellbeing and resilience in Higher Education

Fabienne Vailes

• Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781788603355
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

The REAL University Challenge: Helping students to become flourishing life-long learners.

As a tutor you want to help students to flourish not only academically but in all aspects of their university lives: mentally, emotionally, physically, socially and spiritually. But with students reporting stress and anxiety at an all-time high, and academic staff under more pressure than ever before, you could use some help.

In this new, post-pandemic edition of the classic guide, Fabienne Vailes reveals how you can help your students develop a 'tool box' of well-being techniques that will support them through university and beyond, and ensure your own well-being at the same time. She finishes with thoughts on how universities can implement systemic changes that support flourishing at an institutional, not just at an individual, level.

Fabienne Vailes is an expert on emotional and mental well-being within the education sector. She is on a mission to change the face of education – embedding well-being into the curriculum to create an environment where both students and staff flourish and become empowered lifelong learners to succeed both academically and in the workplace.

PART I

GAINING UNDERSTANDING AND CLARITY

Chapter 1

Setting the scene

The current state of student mental health in UK Higher Education

‘The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding’
– Leonardo da Vinci

The general picture

To better understand the overall context surrounding UK HE, here are some facts that you might find interesting drawn from Universities UK.

• 2.53 million students were studying in the UK at HE level in 2019/20.³ Between 2018/19 and 2019/20, the total number of student enrolments increased by 3% and the number of first-year postgraduate taught students increased by 10%.

• 56.9% (1.44 million) were female, 42.6% (1.09 million) male and 0.15% (3,865) other.

• Almost 40% of students were aged 20 and under, 29% were aged 21 to 24, 11% were aged between 25 and 29, and 20% were aged 30 and over.

• In 2019/20, the majority studied in England (2.06 million), then Scotland (260,490), Wales (136,355) and finally Northern Ireland (59,075).

• Around 569,000 students lived in rented accommodation, almost 361,000 in accommodation maintained by the institutions, 379,000 at their parental/guardian home, almost 333,000 in their own accommodation and 175,000 in private sector halls.

What about student health?

Mental health problems are a growing public health concern both in the UK and around the world. For example, according to the Mental Health Foundation, the 2014 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey highlights that every week one in six adults in the UK experiences a common health problem such as ‘anxiety’ or ‘depression’ and one in five adults has considered taking their own life at some point.⁴ At this point, it is of course vital to mention Covid-19 and the huge negative impact it has had on our well-being as a nation. A recent article in the Lancet which tracked changes in the mental health of the UK population before the Covid-19 pandemic and during lockdown shows an overall increase in mental distress in people aged 16 years over and older compared with the previous year (in 2019).⁵

The Higher Education landscape – post-Covid

At the end of November 2020, the Office for National Statistics carried out a pilot survey of university students to provide information about student behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic. More than half of the participants (57%) reported a worsening of their mental health and well-being and students appeared to be more anxious than the general population of Great Britain.⁶

A study carried out by Cao et al. (2020) showed that about 25% of the students surveyed experienced anxiety linked to worries about academic delays, the economic effects of the pandemic and the impact on daily life.

Eighty-three per cent of the participants in a survey by YoungMinds (2020) agreed that their pre-existing symptoms of mental health conditions worsened because of the pandemic due to school closures, loss of routine and lack of social connections.⁷

Whether or not you have been working in the HE sector, I am sure you are acutely aware that the important topics of student ‘mental health’ and ‘mental health problems’ have regularly appeared in our media over the years. When I wrote the first edition of this book, I found many articles suggesting that stress is much more prevalent than we think. For example, a survey carried out in 2013 by a private insurance company, entitled ‘The Aviva Health of the Nation Index’, reported that GPs are spending a lot more time dealing with mental health issues.⁸ It is the most prevalent type of illness, with the study reporting that 84% of GPs are seeing more patients than ever before suffering from stress and anxiety. Conversations with a GP working at a student health service confirmed this; they described their work as ‘trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted’.

A survey carried out by the National Union of Students (NUS) in 2020 revealed that over half of students (52%) have worse mental health than before the Covid-19 pandemic.⁹ During lockdown, many reported having insufficient contact with others: two in five of the students in a relationship reported never seeing their partner, whilst only 13% saw their friends more than once a week. Interestingly, whilst half the students indicated that they were interacting more with family, they also said that contact with other support networks had decreased. 57% of students interacted less frequently with other students at their institution, 53% less with friends and 65% less with clubs and societies. Given the importance of social health for humans and mammals, this clearly impacted on young people’s mental health (and to the same extent on adults too).

Research has clearly shown that many of the major mental illnesses begin to appear during adolescence and early adulthood; 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24.¹⁰ It is thus important to not only bring awareness to mental health and mental illnesses/disorders but also cultivate a clear understanding of what constitutes a mental disorder/illness so that everyone in education (staff, parents and students alike) has the right knowledge, competences and attitudes to help themselves and others, if needed.

As pointed out by Dr Stan Kutcher in a recent article in the Saltwire: ‘Mental illnesses are drivers of suicide, lead to shortened life expectancy, increase risk for other chronic diseases (e.g. diabetes, heart disease) and can negatively impact personal, social and economic success.’ We also need to recognize that ‘despite over a decade of mental health awareness building, rapid access to best evidence-based mental health care for young people is not where it needs to be’.¹¹

I share Kutcher’s view that we must do a better job of focusing on mental illness as well as addressing mental health. We need to focus on pathogenesis (an understanding of what causes a mental illness and what treatments we can provide for said illnesses) so that we can prevent mental illness at a population level.

In the past, the key focus has been on treating mental disorders and challenges, as well as fixing dysfunction. Science has been trying to tackle the problem of mental illness by mirroring our approach to physical illnesses and disorders, focusing on the causes of pathological states or abnormal states. A focus on a positive approach to mental health is not the sole answer either. Perhaps the answer needs to be more nuanced and balanced. When I interviewed Professor Corey Keyes on the Flourishing podcast (Episode 4), he told me that at the public health level we also need to take a salutogenic approach, which focuses on what promotes the well-being and health of human beings as well as protects against the loss of well-being.¹² If we were to put those two systems in place, we would move towards the complete health paradigm. We could get our population to that sweet spot of more people flourishing and being free of mental health disorders; this really appeals to me.

I am not a mental health expert nor a specialist in mental ill-health. I am an educator and teacher. My work and research have been focused on something different: on how young people and staff can flourish and maintain their well-being. The aim and focus of this book will be on flourishing education or the ultimate development and functioning of individuals, communities and institutions.

Why are students reporting getting increasingly stressed?

The general labelling in the media of university being the best time of students’ lives may not be true for every student. Some of the young people I interviewed told me that they found this idea ‘extremely jarring and upsetting because it makes us feel inadequate and like we are doing something wrong. Why are we not enjoying ourselves when it’s supposed to be the best years of our lives?’

When I interviewed students, it became clear that many of them experience a real period of transition when they move to a new city and enrol at university for the first year of their degree. It is a transition between adolescence and adulthood. It is also a transition between dependence and independence, in a new environment, away from the safety and security of home. They consider the staff members in the departments/schools where they study as their main points of contact. They rely on us as adults to provide them with advice and guidance.

Have you ever wondered why so many students say that they feel stressed? A lot of current research explores the reasons behind this increased self-reported stress and anxiety among students. It is a complex and multifaceted issue with no single answer. One student I interviewed summarized it beautifully when she said:

There are problems everywhere. It’s a generation issue – where we are surrounded by problems with the media telling us that we should all be slimmer and what diet to follow – what degree to do to earn a lot of money, what to look like and how to succeed and even how to choose a boyfriend. Your job and your career say everything about you. It’s not the same values as one or two generations before. As a result, when you go to university, you are not just there to study, you are there to make friends, to be popular, to be known and so if those aren’t happening, you question yourself.

This statement clearly highlights the complexity of the issue and all the challenges, academic but also personal and social, that students are faced with when they join a HE institution and embark on their degree. Below is a list of some of the specific points highlighted by students in previous research and drawn from my own interviews:

• Academic workload

Many of my students regularly cite workload as their number-one stressor. Research seems to confirm this with large-scale studies of the major stressors of the first year indicating that students cannot handle the academic work (Sax 1997). Yet, this workload has not changed and is not more demanding than in previous years.

• Concerns about the future

These concerns include the ‘doom and gloom’ stories in the press and on social media about the impact of Brexit, Covid and climate change, for example. Uncertainty and fear of something going wrong in the future all contributes to the automatic nervous system kicking in (we will read more about this in Chapter 2 about stress). Much research has been carried out on the impact of climate change on young people’s mental health. A recent article in Nature explains how young people are experiencing ‘eco-anxiety’, distress and anger at the way the issues around climate change are being dealt with by governments and societies.¹³ This is a cause of great concern (and understandably so) for young people who worry about the future of the blue planet as well as theirs.

• Exams and assessments

A survey called ‘Silently Stressed’ carried out by NUS Scotland, based on 1,800 students from 19 FE colleges and 15 universities across Scotland, found that 90% of students reported that exams and assessments caused them more stress than anticipated; only 2% said they experienced no stress at all.¹⁴ Some of my tutees are unable to revise because of stress; they procrastinate and leave their work until the last minute, which creates even more stress as the deadline approaches and they realize they will not be able to meet it.

• Extrinsic instead of intrinsic motivation

Several students mentioned that they felt that they had chosen to come to university for ‘extrinsic’ reasons: to earn their degree (with a good classification) so that they could get a good well-paid job that would help them to lead a comfortable life. One student in particular said to me:

I am in my final year so I am not going to stop now but after having therapy and discussing my situation, I now realize that I shouldn’t have come to university because I didn’t have enough of an internal desire to engage and participate in university life fully because I found it personally rewarding or enjoyable. I did because that’s what my parents and teachers expected from me and encouraged me to do and I didn’t want to upset them. I was also worried that I would not be able to find a job otherwise.

He added: ‘Society says that young people need a degree to get a good job, earn good money and be happy but I am not sure that’s true.’

• Financial worries

The increase in university fees and financial worries have featured regularly in the press. Students regularly mention that they must pay £9,250 per year to attend university. The substantial debt after a three- or four-year degree programme is a clear source of anguish for young people, who worry about starting their working life with such a large amount of money to pay off.

The impact of financial concerns on overall mental health has become a popular topic among researchers and practitioners. For example, Roberts et al. (2000) identified a link between the adverse financial situations of college students and the negative impact on mental and physical health that translated into mental distress. Andrews and Wilding (2004) found that financial stressors were positively associated with increased anxiety and depression levels among college students in the United Kingdom.

• Future careers

In the same survey by Andrews and Wilding (2004), over 75% of students reported that thinking about their future career prospects afte...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part I – Gaining Understanding and Clarity
• Part II – The Implications for Education
• Part III – The Tutor’s Own Toolbox
• References
• Notes
• Index