This is a recording of a May 2019 panel discussion at Queen Mary, University of London, on the question ‘should universities teach well-being?’
There is, apparently, a mental health crisis in higher education. Student referrals for counselling are soaring, andaccording to one study, 40% of PhDs are depressed or anxious. Students in Bristol took to the streets to demand better mental health services, while the universities minister declared the purpose of universities should no longer just be knowledge, but also well-being. What are universities’ responsibilities in this area? What should students expect and demand? Can universities teach wellbeing, and what is the role of the arts and humanities in this endeavour? You can also download this from the Centre’s podcast on iTunes, here.
Panelists: Dr Tiffany Watt Smith, QMUL Drama (Chair) Shamima Akter, QMSU Vice President Welfare Prof Kam Bhui, QMUL Head of Centre for Psychiatry and Deputy Director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine at Barts and The London Jules Evans, QMUL Centre for the History of Emotions Kevin Halon, QMUL Counselling Manager Niall Morrissey, QMUL Mental Health Co-ordinator Dr Ruth Fletcher, QMUL senior lecturer in medical law
QMUL’s Centre for the History of the Emotions hosted a half-day seminar on the Flourishing University, exploring well-being and wisdom in higher education, for students, PhDs, staff and the wider society, from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Below is the schedule of speakers along with the link to a Soundcloud audio of the sessions (two talks weren’t recorded). You can download the audio on iTunes here.
You can also download the slides below – apologies if some of the slides came out a bit wrong when I converted them to PDF.
Session One: Introduction
Jules Evans, research fellow at Centre for the History of the Emotions: Why we need an interdisciplinary approach to flourishing in higher education
Rachel Piper, Student Minds head of policy: Co-creating a whole university approach to well-being
Dr Daniel Eisenberg, Healthy Minds Network: What universities can measure in student mental health and well-being
Edward Pinkney, Hong Kong University: Technology as a help and hindrance to student flourishing (audio not available)
Here’s an interview with Gareth Hughes, research lead in student well-being at the University of Derby. Gareth’s worked in this field for two decades and has a lot of wisdom, experience and insight. We discussed how Derby has introduced classes in psycho-education in almost every one of its undergraduate courses – different classes are tailored to the needs of students on different courses (for example, music students get a class in managing performance anxiety).
We discuss a lot more, everything from transition anxiety to the ‘dangerous rise of therapeutic education.’ Here’s the podcast which you can also download on iTunes here
Here’s what we cover and where it’s covered in the podcast:
3 – 10 mins – The psycho-education component in each undergraduate degree at Derby
Different classes in each degree depending on the needs of students. ‘It’s very tailored to their curriculum. And it’s not just about their well-being, it’s about their learning, their lifestyle.’
For example, music students get a class in coping with performance anxiety. Business students get a class on emotional intelligence in the workplace.
‘Classes are embedded in a module. If it’s voluntary, students don’t get why it’s helpful, if it’s part of a module they come along and then get why it’s useful.’
‘We always call it learning and well-being – the two are very much linked.’
‘We’ve made a commitment to [having psycho-education classes] in 100% of Derby degree courses by 2018. And we’re on target for that.’
11 mins – helping students in the first weeks and first year
‘think about the first year as a year’s worth of induction, not just the first weeks’
‘more students have clinical levels of distress than not in the first six weeks of university’ – why the first few weeks is a good time to focus on feeling / belonging rather than learning.
Transition anxiety isn’t just homesickness, because there’s similar levels of distress in students who live at home. It’s the entry into a new environment. We can help students using guided visualization – imagining walking around the campus and feeling you belong.
19 mins – Belonging / socialization: ‘we don’t know how students socialize, we just as hope it’s happening. It’s a magical thing we’re leaving up to the student union and fate. We have no idea why some students find their social group and others don’t.’
If you perceive yourself as lonely, your immune and cognitive levels drop
If students had been to a university open day before arriving, they generally had lower levels of distress
20.30 mins – what should university well-being teams measure?
‘measurement is important but it’s dangerous to look only at that…we need a more complex way of looking at what’s going on’
The priority given to RCTs is a problem. RCTs way you stop imposters getting in the door with dangerous things. CBT in RCTs and CBT in real world – the outcomes are very different.
Measurements don’t get used as scientific tools, get used as management tools
What can you realistically do with each intervention that you’re measuring. Does one class on psycho-education have a major effect? Of course not. But whenever we go and deliver programmes, students are more likely to access service afterwards
Our classes also alter what academics do – they bridge counselling and academic teaching
It’s about bridging learning and well-being . ‘While counselling is vitally important, and a lot of universities have cut back on counselling, it’s not the only thing, it’s not the only response.’
26 mins – Are universities more concerned with wellbeing now? ‘Yes, and they have more reason to be, something has gone wrong with young people’.
‘If we map the number of students who we see who need long-term ongoing support, it’s not a curb, it’s a straight line going up, year on year.’
Why? It’s not one thing. It’s a complex cultural phenomenon.
First, there’s been a change in parenting – the idea that the job of the parent is to stop your child ever being distressed has caused problems
eg two children fall out in school, and parents ring up to fix it. Children aren’t left to figure it out themselves
Second, there’s been a change in school culture – very exam driven. Teachers on performance-related pay. It’s no longer about learning or character development, it’s about passing exams. Huge rise in perfectionism among young women.
There’s a cultural narrative about going to university to get a good job immediately afterwards, which is a lie
That’s not what it does – equip you with skills to have a satisfying long-term career, but it’s not a job-training scheme.
The whole narrative that ‘its to get a job to get you on job ladder’ is by people who don’t understand the job ladder doesn’t exist any more
30 mins – do fees increase students’ anxiety?
31 mins – Is therapeutic education making young people more vulnerable?
Kathryn Ecclestone’s book, The Dangerous Rise of Therapeutic Education, is a conspiracy theory rather than a scientific theory, it’s cherry-picking the evidence. Are you saying all the rise in student mental illness is entirely down to wellbeing classes? Look at how many schools run these classes – it’s not that many.
Exam culture in schools is much more pervasive than well-being culture. But where the well-being culture may have a big influence is over-anxious parenting – childhood is meant to be a preparation for adulthood, not some perfect stress-free time.
33.5 mins – Anxiety is the thing that’s most prevalent in students. Far more than anything else.
36 – counselling – what works? students need active, quick therapy. what we need to do is do all different modules.
need to know about students’ subjects and academic performance – it’s a huge part of their life.
needs to put them back in control – takes active shift, chunk of education, bit of movement
38.5 mins – peer to peer support groups work well when well funded, supervised and supported, but if not, can be disastrous
39.5 mins – courses and workshops work if in language of students. has to be relevant to their world not ours. and they have to perceive it as useful very early in the session. otherwise you’re talking over their heads.
40 mins – wellbeing is holistic – learning, meaning, physical health, psychological health – all part of same thing. learning spaces – do they have sunlight and windows. what student accomodation like. can they sleep properly? We have a sleeplessness epidemic among students.
well-being and learning – they’re connected
41 mins – How do you get people onboard with a university well-being programme?
The VC is the person who can think about it holistically
We’ve earned our mileage – we bootcamped ourselves to understand learning more, so we can speak in academics’ language, not ours.otherwise we’re perceived as the bit of university that wants to make degrees easy
no substitute for going from team to team having conversations
44.5 – Staff wellbeing – if a lecturer is mentally unwell, that will influence students
The role of the academic has changed very quickly, and many not sure what their role is
46.50 mins – What should universities be doing than they’re not? Thinking about it differently. We hear a lot about ad hoc initiatives, but little about the philosophy and strategy that underlines them.
There’s an empty theoretical space sitting here. Derby – we defined what our philosophy was and key principles by which we act and behave. We’re not a reactive closed-door service. active and collaborative.
wave 1 – workshops for all students.
wave 2 – work vulnerable students
wave 3 – work with students at risk
It’s a research – teaching – practice model
49 mins – the importance of classical Indian and Greek philosophy to psychology and wellbeing initiatives. Psychology is more based on philosophy than it likes to admit.
50 mins – US versus UK universities – American unis more in loco parentis
UK unis moving to US model – in US you’re a minor until 21 in most states. you get curfew times in halls of residence. you get male and female halls of residence. which our students wouldnt tolerate.
another thing is we’re not here to plug a gap in students for three years then turn them out at other end.
we want students able to manage their own needs.
you hear a lot of learner development and personal development theory. but i do think that in loco parentis thing makes them carry students more
52 mins – we have an opportunity to change the world here.
This week I took the train out to Milton Keynes, then a taxi through the golden fields of Buckinghamshire to the University of Buckingham, where Sir Anthony Seldon recently became vice-chancellor. He was previously headmaster of Wellington School, where he became prominent for his advocacy of happiness classes. Now, he has brought that vision to higher education, outlining his plan to make Buckingham ‘Europe’s first positive university’.
What does that mean? Well, you can listen to our conversation through this podcast. In brief, it’s a holistic vision that includes various measures, from mentoring to mindfulness. The most eye-catching is the introduction of classes in Positive Psychology for all students and staff.
I met the head of psychology, Dr Alan Martin, who has been given this task by Anthony. Imagine – you’re the head of faculty in the UK’s smallest university, your speciality is children’s understanding of science, when a new vice-chancellor arrives and calls you in for a meeting. ‘I’d like to introduce classes in Positive Psychology. For everyone’. ‘All psychology students?’ ‘No, everyone.’
In that first meeting with Alan, Anthony called up Martin Seligman, founder of Positive Psychology, and booked him in as a consultant. Suddenly, Alan is thrust into the fabulously-funded world of Positive Psychology, the cultish conferences at Penn, the sermons from Seligman, the endless well-being questionnaires. And he is the European apostle – go forth, and make Buckingham flourish. It’s the stuff of David Lodge novels.
His task is made slightly easier by the fact Buckingham only has 2500 undergraduates, and it already has the highest scores for student satisfaction in the UK, thanks to its low student-to-teacher ratio and tutorial system. But it’s still quite a shift in culture for the university – it was founded in the 1970s by two neoliberal wonks from the Thatcherite Institute of Economic Affairs, and opened by the Iron Lady herself, as a way to challenge state control of universities. The previous vice-chancellor was a grumpy libertarian who didn’t believe in staff training.
Seldon, by contrast, has a much more paternalist vision of the university. The part of our conversation that most struck me– have a listen yourself on the podcast – is where Anthony says: ‘Universities are helping people to be free. You can’t assume that people suddenly morph from dependent teenagers to autonomous adults over the summer holidays.’He adds:
This is about liberating but not infantilizing people. Liberty is not license. If you let 18-year-olds without any guidance have lots of money and access to whatever they want to do, without guidance, then it would be a recipe for disaster in some people’s cases. We’re here to try and help people learn how to be free. Many adults aren’t free. I’ve never met an alcoholic who’s free, I’ve never met a sex addict who’s free. I’m sure they were all given huge license to indulge themselves, but life is not about indulgence, indulgence is enslavement.
Cardinal Newman
He quotes Jean-Jacques Rousseau, about the state helping people to be free (or forcing them, rather – Seldon says ‘ there’s a place for coercion in education’) but the educator he really reminds me of is Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th-century Catholic thinker and rector of the Catholic University in Dublin. He wrote The Idea of a University, which is the classic defence of the liberal arts model of education, ie the idea that universities shouldn’t just teach vocations but also the intellectual, social and spiritual virtues.
Newman, like Seldon, saw universities as pastors shepherding students to autonomous adulthood. Newman thought that ‘a Tutor was not a mere academical Policeman, or Constable, but a moral and religious guardian of the youths committed to him’. He also thought peer-to-peer education was key – students really mould each other through what Newman called the ‘genius loci’, or ‘spirit-of-the-place’ (through sports, clubs, arts groups, and so on).
Paul Shrimpton, author of a recent book on Newman’s vision for higher education, writes: ‘Throughout his life Newman was preoccupied with the ‘problem’ of human freedom, and in particular how it played out in a person’s formative years. In all his educational ventures he grappled with how best to negotiate that delicate and gradual process of launching the young person into the world, how to pitch demands and expectations with just that right mixture of freedom and restraint.’
Seldon clearly thinks universities are more in loco parentis than most British universities currently are – his vision is closer to the American liberal arts model, where of course 18-year-olds are still legally minors. I wonder how this vision will go down in the UK. As we emerged from dinner, Anthony greeted three Buckingham students wandering down the village street, pints in hand. ‘Good evening, how are you!’ he beamed. The students seemed startled by running into their new vice-chancellor. ‘We were just discussing student drinking!’ he said. ‘We…er….just came second in the pub quiz’, one of the students responded, while the other two lurked in the background.
Maybe some will find his vision creepy. I’m sure many sullen British academics will say his project is really turning out cheerleaders for neo-liberalism, and that students should actually be taught to be angry at the injustices of global capitalism. But it must be possible to have an education that both wakes us up to the sometimes harsh reality of life on this planet and also gives us the confidence, equanimity and inner strength to believe we can improve that reality. Is this not what, say, Martha Nussbaum advocates in her defence of the liberal arts?
Personally, I wish I’d had a tutor like Anthony at university. He’s an unusual chap, no mistake. On the one hand, a political operator, well-connected, not shy of publicity, who’s written biographies of four prime ministers. On the other hand, a deeply spiritual person who talks of transcending the ego, with whom one can discuss anything from yoga to Gurdjieff.
He greeted me at his cottage and then went off to meditate, and he went off to meditate again after my talk. In between, we sat in his living room with assorted students and staff, for what he called a ‘fireside chat’. ‘Who’s watching Love Island?’ he asked the startled cohorts, who seemed unsure whether to admit such a vice. He has a habit of firing questions at people. ‘What’s your greatest fear?’ he asked me at dinner. ‘When was the last time you took drugs?’ he asked at the fireside chat. ‘About a month ago”, I said. ‘A microdose of magic mushrooms.’ Well, Anthony, you did ask!
If you want to hear highlights of our conversation, click here.
Exploring well-being in higher education from an interdisciplinary perspective
