SENSE: UCL launches new student mental health survey

Source: UCL SENSE Team

Tharani Ahillan and Maggie Durovcikova report on the SENSE survey of student mental health and wellbeing.

The issue of student mental health has been thrust into the limelight in recent years. The Guardian has dedicated a series of articles to the topic (“Mental health: a university crisis”) and various other media outlets jump at opportunities to write about student mental health. Yet there is very little empirical research on the topic. With such poor understanding of the support students need and the issues they experience, universities are finding it difficult to improve their psychological services.

In response, researchers at UCL have recently launched a university-wide survey of student wellbeing. On 30th October, all students across UCL received an email asking them to fill out a confidential survey about their experience at university, with a focus on wellbeing and mental health. The survey also looks at students’ living situations, finances, and workload, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the life of a student. 

The survey, called SENSE, is the first of its kind at UCL and aims to tackle the issue of student mental health, among other things. It was developed by PhD student Tayla McCloud and other researchers at UCL. They hope to publish their results and inspire change, not only at UCL, but also at a national level. 

Tayla McCloud explained what inspired her to create the survey: “Up until now, little has been done to understand why [mental health problems in students are becoming increasingly common]…I am passionate about improving student mental health and I was particularly interested in the socio-demographics and financial factors.”

One of the many ways the study is unique is that it involves students at every step of development, termed co-production. Kirsty Nisbet, the research coordinator for SENSE, explains why this was done: “We wanted to involve students in all stages of the research process of SENSE — right from designing the survey over the summer to how we will interpret the findings after the launch...it was important that we made sure students with an array of experiences and backgrounds were involved in planning SENSE. We made sure to involve both UK and international students, students from various academic years and levels, students both with and without experience of mental health difficulties, and students from various ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds in planning SENSE. As SENSE aims to be designed for every student, we wanted to make sure it reflects as many students' experiences as possible.”

She mentioned that student participation helped shape the survey to be more inclusive: “The meetings helped [the researchers] gain an insight into how to make the student-specific questions surrounding university life as inclusive as possible, as well as helping finalise the email and logo.” 

She went on to say: “From these consultations, we invited the students to form a SENSE Student Steering Group which will oversee the project over the next year as the students’ perspective in the SENSE team.” 

One of the members of the SENSE steering group, Public Administration and Management Master’s student Kateryna Fishchuk, explains why she decided to help out in the study:  “I was surprised when I found out that no comprehensive student mental health survey was ever conducted at UCL! I believe it’s important to understand more closely what it is we are dealing with and what factors affect it. That’s why I decided to participate in this initiative to make my small contribution towards understanding student mental health better.”

However, not all students welcome the survey. Granit Abazi, a former UCL Master’s student in Political Analysis said: “There is a wider public perception that universities are all talk and no action...when you have someone like UCL employing a low/no cost media source (social media) to launch an online survey, they haven’t had to commit to much.”

He feels that this survey represents UCL’s “desperation for publicity generation that comes with being a moral force for good but in reality nothing changes in the structure...For example, hiring cute dogs for students to cuddle around exam time is a direct attack on students’ intelligence.” He does, however, admit that the survey could be useful, but that it needs to be “part of a wider effort to take lessons and feedback from this and actually implement new and creative strategies...not more therapy dogs.”

Arianne Delos Santos, a former UCL Law Student who was a prominent supporter of the “Fund our UCL Mental Health Services” campaign agrees: “the SENSE survey certainly does have the potential to contribute to a wider awareness of the multitude of factors that affect the mental health of UCL students…It is innovative in this respect and integral in finding solutions to tackle what can be an uncomfortable topic.” She therefore urges current UCL students to “actively participate for the benefit of the future generation of students that will study at UCL.” 

Ahmed Al-Shihabi, fifth year medical student and former chair of  UCL Psychiatry Society, was impressed by the survey, saying: “it already exceeds any other survey about wellbeing that I’ve seen by planning on asking participants to repeat it so that it’s not just limited to a snapshot in time.” He was also impressed that the survey screened for psychotic symptoms as well as depression and anxiety, saying that he had “never seen a wellbeing survey do this before, particularly as this age group is the most common point at which most psychotic disorders appear in.” Though he wonders whether things like relationship with family and physical activity levels could have been covered, he says it “is the most comprehensive survey of its kind aimed at students that I have seen.” 

The findings of the survey could have long-lasting effects on student mental health at UCL, especially with the support of management. This is echoed by the Vice-Provost, Professor Anthony Smith, who claims the study will be helpful: “The mental health of our students is a priority for UCL…I look forward to seeing the outputs [of the SENSE survey] to improve our understanding of students’ needs and to ensure the support we offer is tailored to those needs.” 

With this momentum and support from various departments as well as UCL management, the SENSE survey has considerable potential to change the way student mental health is understood and studied. This will hopefully lead to changes in policy and funding to bring much-needed mental health support for students.

If you haven’t taken part in the survey yet, you can do so here.