Join us on Bluesky with guest Professor Zoë Allman @zoe-a-z.bsky.social on Wednesday 8th October 2025 at 20:00 BST

Mental health and wellbeing are important topics that are increasingly discussed in Higher Education (HE) and society generally.  This Friday, 10 October marks World Mental Health Day, and acts as a timely reminder for those of us in HE to consider the educational experiences of our students through the lens of mental health and wellbeing.

Such topics are increasingly considered in the design and development of academic programmes of study, support activity, and throughout the student journey.  External bodies and charter awards provide support for providers wanting to develop and demonstrate their activity in this space, ultimately to better support the individual student experience.

Embedding Mental Wellbeing: Methods and Benefits

In 2021-22, I led a Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Collaborative Enhancement Project entitled ‘Embedding mental wellbeing: Methods and benefits’.  The project explored how mental wellbeing could be embedded across various aspects of HE activity to enhance the student experience. The aim was to collate and develop a suite of best practice examples, shared for the sector to consider and use through being made available as Open Education Resources (OERs).  The resources share examples from across the sector to support the embedding of mental wellbeing within the curriculum, for inspiration, re-use and re-purposing. There are examples of:

• pedagogical techniques and approaches that support embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum;
• approaches to embedding mental wellbeing in programmes and modules, and at the university level;
• the design of assessment and feedback to best support student mental wellbeing;
• transitions during the student journey, initiatives and interventions to support navigation;
• work-based placements and professional experiences supporting student mental wellbeing; and
• relationship-building, connection and belonging as effective approaches to embedding mental wellbeing.

Additionally, the team sought to identify definitions for mental wellbeing and embedding mental wellbeing to facilitate use of the resources provided. 

The project was truly collaborative, including academics, professional services, senior leaders and students’ union representatives from seven original project partners: De Montfort University (Lead), De Montfort Students’ Union, London South Bank University, Open University, University of Bristol, University of East Anglia, University of Greenwich, and University of Reading. All groups members we passionate about the aims to provide definitions for mental wellbeing and embedding mental wellbeing, to share examples from collaborative partner providers, and to identify the benefits of embedding mental wellbeing to support colleagues across the sector who may wish to replicate similar activity in their own settings.  For those interested in the project and research behind it please take a look at our accompanying journal article (Lister & Allman, 2024).

The OERs were originally launched at a QAA online event on 17 January 2022, followed by QAA events and blogs (Allman, 2022; 2024) to provide timely reminders of the availability of these resources.  There has been, and there remains, extensive interest in the topic from academics, professional services, learning developers, students’ unions and senior leaders.

What to expect during the LTHEChat

The LTHE Chat on Wednesday 8 October 2025 invites discussion about what mental wellbeing means for us, as individuals in our unique HE contexts, and what students may expect in terms of support for, and the addressing of, mental wellbeing in the curriculum; welcomes ideas sharing about methods we have tried when embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum; and asks what support we need to make it happen.  The Chat also invites creative input, inviting the sharing of images that resonate in relation to the topic of mental wellbeing, and concludes by asking what one thing we will now try to (further) embed mental wellbeing going forward.

References

Allman, Z. 2022. Embedding Mental Wellbeing. 10 October.  The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). [Online]. Available at: https://www.qaa.ac.uk//en/news-events/blog/embedding-mental-wellbeing

Allman, Z. 2024. Embedding mental wellbeing, methods and benefits. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). Available at: https://www.qaa.ac.uk/news-events/blog/embedding-mental-wellbeing-methods-and-benefits

Lister, K. and Allman, Z. 2024. Embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum: a collaborative definition and suite of examples in practice. Frontiers in Education. 8:1157614. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2023.1157614

Guest Biography

Professor Zoë Allman is an academic leader passionate about enhancing opportunities for all and developing sector approaches to embedding mental wellbeing.  Zoë is Associate Dean Education at De Montfort University, and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA 2018), National Teaching Fellow (NTF 2020), and Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence winner (CATE 2022). 

Zoë is a member of the Committee of the Association of National Teaching Fellows, bringing her background in media production and creative technologies to the role of Communications Officer.  Additionally, she is a member of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) Higher Education Advisory Panel, and an Expert Reader for The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), Quality Code Advice and Guidance writing groups, Expert Reader for Principle 12 – Operating concerns, complaints, and appeals processes.

Questions and chat

Q1 –  What comes to mind when you think about mental wellbeing in the HE curriculum?

Q2 –  What do you believe are student expectations of mental wellbeing being supported or addressed in the curriculum?

Q3 –  What methods have you tried to embed mental wellbeing in the HE curriculum?

Q4 –  As teachers/tutors/facilitators, what support do we need to develop mental wellbeing in the curriculum?

Q5 – “A picture speaks a thousand words”, images can transcend boundaries and are open to individual interpretation. What image(s) could you use to enhance mental wellbeing? And how?

Q6 – Following this evening’s #LTHEChat, what one thing will you try to (further) embed mental wellbeing in the curriculum?