Sunmentors Project

About

Building Resilient Academic Communities

A Strategic Approach to Addressing Student Mental Health in Universities

Universities worldwide struggle with rising student mental health issues, most commonly depression and anxiety. Students often feel unsupported and disadvantaged, creating an urgent need for better integration and support systems. Teaching staff, often the first point of contact for students, lack the skills and resources to effectively identify and assist struggling students. Time constraints and limited knowledge and understanding on this topic further hinder their ability to offer meaningful help.Yet they often play a key role for the students concerned in successfully completing their studies.

The use of the word ‘problem’ is somewhat controversial for some people- often having a negative impact. We could use the word ‘concern’ for a more caring term.

Aims to develop flexible training programmes for teaching staff at universities and colleges in order to better support students experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depressionincluding focussing on boundaries, identifying possible warning signs, active listening, offering appropriate support, conversational skills and relevant signposting.

In addition to the joint development of training modules, the participating European higher educational institutions engage in a fundamental dialogue on the design of inclusive learning environments with regard to mental health beyond that of student wellbeing services, of which are overwhelmed. This includes investing in creating supportive and inclusive environments, providing comprehensive staff training on mental health support, and actively combating stigma while expanding accessible resources. By taking these crucial steps, universities can not only improve student well-being but also foster a thriving academic community that benefits everyone.

Impact

SUNMENTORS: Fostering Systemic Change in Student Mental Health

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SUNMENTORS is more than training modules; it's a collaborative effort for inclusive student mental health.

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Higher education institutions involved will develop comprehensive, strategies tailored to their needs while benefiting from shared tools and resources across Europe.

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Freely accessible materials provided include a handbook, an e-learning platform, as well as policy paper to raise public awareness and influence broader communities.

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Targets not just students but also policymakers and non-profit organizations to impact wider communities.

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Aims to foster systemic change, ensuring all students have access to necessary mental health support to succeed in higher education.

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SUNMENTORS' goal is to go beyond individual efforts to create a future where comprehensive support systems are in place for student mental health.

Review

Partners' Information

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT DORTMUND Cordinator 🇩🇪

Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund (sfs) (“Social Research Center”) is a scientific institution of Technische Universität Dortmund (TUDO). With around 32.000 students, 300 professors and 6 200 employees the University is the fourth largest Technical University in Germany. The Social Research Center is one of the long-established German research institutes in the field of social science labour research. Founded in 1946, the former state institute became a central scientific institution of the TUDO in 2007. The overarching guiding theme of the sfs' research work is social science innovation research. It examines how social innovations arise and how they relate to technological innovations. Another focus is on the question of the conditions and perspectives for realising economically, ecologically and socially sustainable development. Within the field of labour, our research is especially focused on health and prevention, co-determination in the work place and gender-studies. The Social Research Center can look back on 75 years of social science research and has meanwhile carried out several hundred research and joint projects with partners from science and practice at regional, national and European level. Within the Center for Higher Education (zhb), a central scientific institution of the Technical University of Dortmund, DoBuS is the department "Disability and Studies". Studying with a disability or chronic illness can entail a variety of questions, needs and obstacles. With its services, DoBuS supports not only students, but also teachers and all other members of the university in creating conditions for equal opportunities for students with disabilities. The two main areas of operation are counseling and accessible media and assistive technology.

CIAPE Partner 🇮🇹

CIAPE, Centro Italiano per l'Apprendimento Permanente (Italian Center for Lifelong Learning), is a nonprofit institution founded in Italy with the mission of promoting lifelong learning and supporting the personal and professional growth of individuals of all ages and backgrounds. Founded in 2009, CIAPE has gradually established itself as one of Italy's leading centers of innovation in the field of training, developing training paths and projects at both national and European levels. Over the years, the organization has built a solid reputation by collaborating with public bodies, private companies and other educational institutions to offer high-quality programs designed to increase the skills required in the modern market. CIAPE's projects span a wide range of topics and sectors, and aim to meet the needs of different social and professional groups. Each project is developed in partnership with institutions and research organizations in Europe, ensuring an exchange of best practices and a multidisciplinary approach that takes into account the cultural and social specificities of the Italian and European context.CIAPE collaborates with a wide and diverse network of partners, including universities, government institutions, nonprofit organizations, and private companies. At the local level, CIAPE collaborates with numerous regional and national entities to ensure a positive and lasting impact on the territory, promoting initiatives that respond to concrete societal and labor market needs.

INNOVATION HIVE Partner 🇬🇷

Innovation Hive is a private non-profit organization located in Greece, specialized in the fields of research and innovation. Our actions aim to enhance the economic and social cohesion of European societies while our goal is to find solutions to the new innovation challenges, achieve growth, sustainability and maximize the impact to the society. The organization’s philosophy in order to achieve these goals is based on co-creation methodologies and a quadruple helix approach. The engagement of stakeholders from industry, science and society is aiming to create links between the businesses, the academia and the civic actors in order to develop a combination of knowledge, skills, tools, values and motivation. The final goal is to make a difference in local societies and to succeed at the highest level the principles of social innovation concepts.

UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE Partner 🇬🇧

Founded in 1952, The University of Hertfordshire has a rich and vibrant history of higher education excellence, 25 minutes from London. In 2022-23 we celebrated our 70th anniversary of powering the potential of the many students, graduates, businesses and staff who have passed through our doors. First in the East of England for overall student satisfaction (National Student Survey, 2023). With 32,000 of diverse students from 140 countries, the University offers a gateway to a world-class education. With over 550 career-focused degree options and partnerships with 170 global universities, students have unparalleled opportunities. Our values, 'Friendly, Ambitious, Collegiate, Enterprising and Student focused' (FACES), underpin and guide everything we do, including how we behave and communicate. Being open and approachable. Embracing challenges and new ideas. The only university to be awarded a King's Award for Enterprise this year, Herts was recognised for how it has developed and grown its internationalisation strategy. 93.5% of Herts UK graduates are employed or in further study within 15 months of graduation. The University of Hertfordshire has recently been placed second for postgraduate student experience, and achieved sector-leading scores across all areas of teaching, learning and development, in the new 2023 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey, compiled by higher education and research charity Advance HE, which ranked the University in the top five for every single section of the survey, including placing it as number one out of 85 institutions for skills development.

PANEPISTIMIO PATRON Partner 🇬🇷

The University of Patras was founded in the city of Patras in 1964 and it began functioning in the Academic year 1966-67. The University of Patras supports the research activities of its members through a centralized infrastructure and scholarships/grants from its own resources. Simultaneously, the University offers specialized laboratory and consulting services upon contracts with public or private sector organizations and companies. It operates over 23,7M Euro research funds with >1598 researchers.

UC LEUVEN Partner 🇧🇪

With over 15000 students and 1750 employees, UCLL is one of the largest institutions of higher education in Flanders, Belgium. UCLL offers 18 graduates, 18 professional Bachelor's programmes and 11 advanced Bachelor's programmes on 8 campuses. UCLL is active in the fields of teacher training, management, technology, health and wellbeing and combines its educational mission with practice based research. As a higher education institution, we place maximum emphasis on personal guidance of our students. Our broad educational network guarantees a place for everyone's talent. Our diplomas are viewed as a premium on the labour market. Putting people and ideas in motion by providing space for innovative thinking and cooperation is the vision of UCLL. UCLL is part of the KU Leuven Association. We are a high ranked knowledge institution with respect to practice oriented research and services towards other institutions, associations and organisations. In these areas it is our mission to offer future proof knowledge, services and mental manpower. UCLL’s 8 centres of expertise consist of multidisciplinary research teams cooperating based on of the demand from businesses, non-profit organisations and policymakers. All 8 centres of expertise strive for excellence in research, real-life solutions and lifelong learning.

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. 2023-1-DE01-KA220-HED-000161199