When I started at the University of Sydney, I joined a team that was struggling with incredibly complicated processes. To work through a referral from a student reporting an incident of distress, my team and I had to open no fewer than nine separate systems. And the situation was no better for the student or staff member relating the incident. To record their experience, they had to choose one of 17 configurations of the reporting form.

So one of our key priorities for the Safer Communities project has been to build a system that gives us a complete picture of a student and their needs, so we can address them in an integrated and holistic way. 

From the point of referral and throughout the entire period of care, we want to put the right information in front of the proper practitioner when they need it, so they can make healthy decisions about how to interact with and care for the student in front of them. 

Download the Simplus Australia ebook: 6 ways Australian universities are stopping student attrition.

It is critical to give students the best possible chance to complete their studies. We are building a program that enables us to intervene before students find themselves at crisis point. It will help to reduce the occurrence of serious incidents and allow us to properly support victims and survivors.

Designing a human-centred system to improve student wellbeing

We are now in the final stages of building our early intervention and student support system. We’ve reduced those nine systems to one, and cut the 17 different reporting forms back to a single common experience.

Our current focus is user testing. We want to ensure the process of reporting is human-centred and requires minimal effort. Our goal is to create a system that supports anyone who needs to report trauma. It’s vital that the process makes them feel confident that the university will act on their report. 

“The point is to get the system to act quickly with the information it has so we can focus on human interaction.” - Dr Benjamin Wilkes, University of Sydney

One of our biggest challenges is balancing the mechanical nature of a systemised recording program with the need for a straightforward experience for those communicating under difficult circumstances. 

For someone reporting an incident, we have a dynamic form linked to our CRM. This makes for a much smoother experience. Importantly, it allows them to make choices along the way about how much they want to submit at any given time. The person reporting their experience may not feel ready to disclose all the details straight away, so it’s critical that we enable choice and offer flexibility and support throughout the process. 

 A sophisticated system often presents more than one way of doing something – a challenge our staff are facing right now. So we are continuously assessing how we can use quick links and shortcuts so that staff members don't have to count the number of contacts, sessions or people involved in an incident. The point is to get the system to act quickly with the information it has so we can focus on human interaction.

Creating a responsive and supported community

Safer Communities is part of a larger program that involves getting all our wellbeing services connected in one system. It also requires promoting a wider campaign in the university community about respect and responsibility.

We can’t put all the responsibility for action on victims and survivors. We must build a community that feels confident and supported to call out unacceptable behaviour and that can actively contribute to a safer campus.

When the new external-facing reporting methods are launched, we’ll also share new materials to raise awareness. We have been consulting with colleges and residences about the most effective and appropriate way to share that information.

There are around 300 clubs and societies at the university. Student leaders had been receiving reports of assaults or other unacceptable behaviours, and were having trouble responding to the content of what was being disclosed. So we are co-designing a program with them about how to create safer environments for student events and groups, alongside a more informed and empowered reporting system. 

We believe that bystander training will also help people to understand how they can best respond if they witness threatening behaviour or an assault. 

Reducing the tolerance of unacceptable behaviour, intervening before something escalates, and showing consequences early on for inappropriate behaviour are essential parts of creating the safe community that enables students to thrive. 

Dr Benjamin Wilkes, Head – Student Wellbeing, Education, University of Sydney

Read more from Dr Benjamin Wilkes and other higher education staff in both professional and academic streams about how Australian universities can boost retention now. Download the Simplus Australia ebook: 6 ways Australian universities are stopping student attrition

The University of Queensland is looking at the effect of animal-assisted education on tertiary students to determine whether having therapy dogs in lectures and tutorials would benefit their mental health.

Animal-assisted education has been incorporated into primary and high schools for a number of years, lead researcher from UQ’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Jess Hill said, but the research is lacking when it comes to the higher education sector. 

“There are a lot of additional stresses that do come with starting university studies, and research has shown that it does have a negative impact on students' overall mental wellbeing,” Hill told Campus Review.

“We've only just started preliminary analysis, but it is suggesting that dogs have a positive impact on student wellbeing.” 

Hill is accompanied by Elsa, a six-year-old Labradoodle who has been working as a therapy dog with the lecturer for the past five years, first in a paediatric clinic before moving on to academia. 

In her classes, Elsa assists Hill in her animal-assisted therapy demonstrations and interacts with students who give her pats, cuddles and treats. 

Students can also play with her and her toys while she wanders around and sits with them during tutorials and lectures. 

“I'm often hearing students say she's the reason they come to class, or will be giving her a cuddle during a stressful period, and they often say things like, 'Oh, thanks, Elsa, I really needed that today'.

“That interaction with her in the classroom is already beneficial.”

While universities across Australia provide students with counselling and support, Hill said research shows students are often resistant to reach out for the services that universities offer. 

She believes Elsa could actually bridge that gap and help support students' wellbeing. 

Pre-pandemic, university students were five times more likely to develop poor mental health – a number which has increased as students reported extremely high levels of distress during Covid-19. 

Poor mental health in academia is often due to the transitions students have to go through while starting university, such as moving away from home, having to work part-time and managing their timetable. 

Prolonged stress can lead to poorer academic results and higher withdrawal rates.

“What the current research indicates is that the presence of an animal does assist to reduce those stress levels, as well as increase engagement and motivation,” Hill said. 

While Hill teaches about animal-assisted therapy, she believes all students or staff could benefit from having a dog around. 

Elsa, who doesn’t work specifically with university staff, often accompanies Hill to her office and during meetings and other events where she interacts with other academics and gives them support. 

“I often will have colleagues come into my office to interact with her when they want; anecdotally they are very happy when they see her walking through the halls.” 

“It is something that's happened more incidentally, just because she's with me, but it could definitely be a line of research to look into in the future.”

Currently, many university staff and researchers across Australia have demonstrated high levels of stress which have been flagged by unions. 

While being hesitant to suggest it as a solution (as her study results haven’t come through yet), Hill believes the inclusion of dogs in universities could help staff and students manage their stress.

“We are waiting to see what the results say at the end, but if they are positive I'd certainly like to see more animal-assisted therapy programs implemented at university.

“The next step in our research would be looking at how dogs could be implemented on a larger scale, but we'd also need to be looking at the impact on the welfare of the animal.”

According to Hill, before implementing therapy dogs in university settings at a larger scale, researchers need to ensure that dogs will be enjoying their work and that it won’t impact their own welfare. 

While the lecturer believes that dogs crossed with poodles like Elsa have the advantage of being hypoallergenic and avoid allergies, the dog’s personality is the most important factor, she said. 

Dogs in the higher education sector will interact with a large number of different people, Hill said, and it is important that the dog is motivated and wants to engage. 

“Elsa loved her clinic work, but I feel as though she was born to be an academic therapy dog.

“She loves working with the students, and she'll even try and pop her head into classes that aren't hers whilst we're waiting for rooms. 

“She's definitely found her calling,” Hill said.

Built up as a collective project between mental health professionals, design communication specialists and a student advisory group, the Good Vibes Experiment is designed to give students the necessary skills to understand and improve their mental health. 

“We wanted to build a campaign that would teach students about mental health, encourage them to seek help via the services on campus, and give them some psychological tools they could use to build up their wellbeing,” said Flinders’ eMental Health Project Officer and lead author, Doctor Gareth Furber.

The project takes the form of a colourful activity book that presents 20 wellbeing tactics and 40 activities that students can engage with under different forms such as writing, drawing and highlighting. 

The methods used in the activity book rely on simple but effective techniques such as gratitude exercises, acts of kindness, spending time in nature or meditation and mindfulness.

The proactive approach was developed with the student advisory group as they did not want another illness-focused campaign, but wanted to give students the tools to develop simple everyday habits that are related to sustaining and building mental health over time.

“Students wanted to see a campaign that was fun and engaging. But underneath there was a deeper meaning, which is that all of us have the right to know how to build and improve the quality of our lives,” Furber told Campus Review.

“And sometimes it's just the case of letting people know what techniques they can use to achieve that  and encouraging them to experiment with them.”

According to Furber, the strategies described in the book will elicit positive change and alleviate stress, even for students who are experiencing profound psychological distress.

“These strategies can counter some of the negative emotions that students are experiencing.

“It can help them make progress in a part of their life that we know medium to long term is going to be good for their mental health.”

A 2017 report from Orygen highlighted that university students are more vulnerable during their study and one in four will experience some sort of mental health illness during their studies. 

The report suggested that the university experience itself could increase the risk of psychological distress as students can face financial stress, increased pressure to perform, poor diet, lack of sleep, difficulties in managing studies and work responsibilities as well as living far away from their family. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the situation has worsened as university students and the general population have seen a 25 per cent increase in stress and depression. 

The higher education sector has an ethical and moral imperative to look after students, Furber said, and to ensure they are coping with their mental health during their study. 

“We want to look after our cohort and make sure that we're giving them as many of these tools and supports as we can, because a student might spend years with us at a really critical point in their life.

“These mental health tools aren't just for their time at university, these are tools for life. 

“These are about the tools of understanding what it means to be a conscious, sentient creature, and being trying to to minimise your suffering and maximise your wellbeing."

Students suffering from poor mental health on campus can have an aversive university experience that can impede their studies but also impact the social aspects of university life. 

“With poor mental health, students can miss or avoid all the various things that happen at university like catching up with friends, going to events, joining clubs and volunteering.

“They become quite isolated as a result.”

In addition, the university has a vested interest in looking after its students, Furber said, as poor mental health is a primary reason for dropping out or not completing courses. 

“Trying to deal with mental health issues on top of the demands of the course can lead to dropout.

“That stress we see translates into procrastination and maybe falling behind. If students start to fall a couple of weeks behind on content, that becomes stressful in itself and they get caught in this stress/procrastination cycle.

“We really want students to look back on their university experience and be glad that they went through it. 

“We want them to think ‘yes, it was stressful and doing the work and learning new stuff is always going to be a bit difficult, but it was great'.”

Sharing resources

In order to promote wellbeing on campus across the country, the team behind the Good Vibes Experiment decided to share its resources freely with anyone who is interested. 

“The campaign is oriented towards positive mental health, positive psychology; it's really talking about what are the tools for mental health growth, and I would definitely advise that people grab the materials.

“Mental health isn't just about the alleviation of suffering, It's also about the building of wellbeing and growth and improvement. 

“If a person can see and understand both aspects of that, they've got a pretty powerful toolkit.”

Furber believes that the higher education sector could take the whole activity book and modify it slightly to fit with their university culture, as 90 per cent of the content is not 'Flinders specific'. 

“They could modify the text, release the book themselves and run that campaign without having to do a lot of the other leg work.

“If they want to build their own campaign, they can utilise what we did as a bit of a benchmark or a bit of an inspiration to give them sort of ideas.

“And universities can contact us if they need help to do that.”

Furber points out that while the Good Vibes Experiment was designed for students initially, it can be applied to anyone who works in the higher education sector, including academic staff and researchers. 

“If someone took the materials and just stripped out the references to students specifically, they could apply that to many different populations as the underlying messages, themes and recommendations would be consistent across a wide age range.

“I'd really love to see people take it and continue on with it, because I'd love to see what Good Vibes Experiment version two or version three or built for other populations would look like.”

As of today, the Good Vibes Experiment has distributed 6-7,000 activity books at open days, orientation days, and via mail outs. The material is also available freely to anyone online.

As the 2021 Australian university year is in full swing, research commissioned by Studiosity revealed that 38 per cent of students were feeling stressed due to their studies at least once a day during 2020.

More distressingly, a further 40 per cent of respondents said they were stressed about their studies every week, and only one per cent of students said they never felt anxious about studying. To discuss these findings and their deeper implications, I spoke to Professor Judyth Sachs, chief academic officer at Studiosity.

According to the annual Student Wellbeing Survey, key stressors included not having enough time to prepare for assessments and exams, subject workloads that were too high, and the inability for students to experience practicums in areas like medicine and teaching. The survey, which is now in its sixth year, is critical Sachs believes, "as any discussion about student success is really a conversation about student wellbeing".

Studiosity's chief academic officer added there was value in universities following up with their 2020 graduates to see how they are coping with their sense of confidence.

That’s the view of University of the Sunshine Coast lecturer in curriculum and pedagogy Dr Shelley Davidow, who says it’s time for parents, teachers and the media to “release the pressure valve” and give university and high school students the time and space needed to make clear decisions.

“We need to change the messages we are giving to the next generation,” she says.

“A good percentage of mental health patients are young people with anxiety and it’s induced by enormous expectations they feel they can’t meet and a feeling they should never fail.”

Given the reality that today’s school leavers and undergraduate students will have a number of careers, “the whole idea of having to decide what you are going to be for the rest of your life when you’re 17 is a myth,” Davidow says.

While this situation is driven in part by our competitive, globalised world, Davidow advocates giving students the opportunity to “find their element”.

“The important thing is that wellbeing comes first. Academic performance will follow.

“If you come out of school not knowing what you want to do, that is fine,” she says.

“Even if you follow a path after school and down the track you change your mind, that’s okay too.”

Davidow joined Campus Review to discuss what’s driving this pressure and what can be done to ease the burden.