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House debates guide on students' mental health

The growing concern about university students’ mental health was debated in the House of Commons this week.

Labour MP Valerie Vaz raised the Adjournment debate with the Minister for Universities and Science Jo Johnson, responding to work by Brunel’s head of counselling Dr Ruth Caleb recommending a raft of training and guidance for rollout to universities.

Ms Vaz said that Dr Caleb, who is also mental health lead for Universities UK, had raised a number of important points in her articles, explaining that student wellbeing costs universities a great deal of money when retention is of utmost importance.

She added that Dr Caleb’s guide, ‘Student mental wellbeing in higher education: good practice guide’, would act as a good blueprint for a policy that could be taken up by universities across the UK.

Mr Johnson agreed that the subject was of huge importance to the sector and beyond, and welcomed an increased awareness by individual universities that support services are needed.

The full debate is available here