Student mental health: What works

We funded a national programme to identify and mobilise effective practice to support student mental health in the English higher education sector, resulting in the online Student Mental Health Evidence Hub.

In May 2022, we commissioned the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO) to deliver a programme that could highlight and bring together existing evidence of effective interventions to support student mental health in higher education.

TASO’s student mental health panel provided feedback on the development of the open-access hub, which is managed by a consortium of five organisations: AMOSSHE, SMaRteN (led by King’s College London), Student Minds, What Works Wellbeing, with TASO as the lead partner.

The hub launched in October 2023 and is aimed at higher education staff who design and implement interventions to support student mental health. The hub aims to help you improve your practice and respond effectively to student needs. Features of the hub include: 

• Examples of practice
• Evaluation guidance
• Project reports
• Work of the student panel 

The hub provides universities and colleges with an evidence toolkit designed to improve understanding of student needs and encourage more robust evaluation. TASO has identified strengths in existing evidence and highlighted gaps in research and the evaluation guidance provided by the Hub is designed to support further research.