Mind the Gaps: Identify, Develop, Reflect, and Refine Skills to Support your Wellbeing at University
About the programme
Want to improve and protect your mental health at university? Mind the Gaps has been designed by your fellow students and those from University of West London and Kings College London, who all have lived experience of studying without various forms of familial support, so it is bound to help you too! Come along to a workshop or check out our online resources.
Join us at our final in-person workshop with FREE lunch on Wednesday 22nd March in the SU Hall/Lounge, 1.30pm-3pm.
Can't make it in person? Join us via Zoom
We look forward to seeing you soon!
Students who identify as the first person in their family to attend university and/or students studying without a form of familial support (mature students, students who are carers, care experienced students, international students, and others).
Students who are first in their families to attend university and students who are otherwise not able to access the same types of support from family are at increased risk of poor mental health, social isolation, and non-continuation as they make their way through critical transition points in their university careers.
Transition points include entering and leaving university, moving between academic years and semester breaks, when students may experience additional challenges around academic and financial pressures, relationships, home and university contrasts, homesickness, and other aspects of student life.
By exploring personal skills and experiences in this context within a group of peers, students can feel more confident to manage hurdles and navigate transitions during their university experience while building connections with other students.
Workshop series
The first element of the programme is a four-workshop series focused on developing personal skills and exploring wellbeing relevant to different transition points at university. These will involve teaching sessions with small-group interactive work and students will have the opportunity to share their experiences and learn from one another. The groups will be led by mental health experts, students, and university support staff. The workshops will be delivered in-person over four half days throughout the academic year.
The topics for the workshops have been selected based on emerging research and student experiences. The workshop series has been designed to address specific challenges identified around the transition point at which they are delivered. While the workshops progressively build on skills and reflections from previous sessions, the topics and activities remain distinct to allow students the choice to attend all or select individual workshops based on their needs.
Workshops will be held on Wednesday afternoons from 1.30pm-3pm and include a FREE Lunch.
The workshops will be based on the following themes:
The transition into university, whether you’re joining university for the first time or transitioning into a new year, is often a time of discovering new opportunities and connections. The first workshop will follow in this spirit to explore your expectations and motivations for university, identify your personal needs to support you in your journey, and build new networks and connections in the university community.
As the academic year progresses and you begin to work through your course material, it can be challenging to identify your own working style and approaches for managing multiple responsibilities. The second workshop will focus on building skills for time management and work life balance, including academic, personal and social demands.
The first exam period can be a daunting time, but also an opportunity for reflection on outcomes, redirection from previous expectations, and growth towards new goals. The third workshop will review the academic year so far, exploring personal definitions of success and failure and revisiting goals and motivations to plan ahead.
At the stage of your final exams, you will have spent the whole year learning new skills and growing from experiences across your academic, personal and social life. The end of the academic year can be a time of uncertainty as you look ahead to the summer break and transition into the new year, or the workplace. The fourth and final workshop will refine skills learned in previous workshops, with a focus on problem solving and managing change as you look towards the future.
No, you can register for just the face-to-face sessions or just access the online resources, or both.
As part of the programme you will have access to digital resources and drop-in sessions (please read more about these below).
We will also provide food at the face-to-face sessions and you will also receive a certificate for completing the sessions that can be used to enhance your employability.
As part of the programme, students will also be able to access a package of digital resources to support their individual reflection and refresh concepts from the workshop series. Similarly to the workshops, the digital resources are broken down into four modules with topics aligning to the workshops. Students have the option to access all or any individual module that feels useful to them, and can access these on their own or use these to complement the workshop sessions based on their own preferences and time constraints.
Access online content and use the pin: STUDENTMH
Any issues, email Marta Ortega Vega at Marta.OrtegaVega@slam.nhs.uk.
The programme will also offer a set of unstructured drop-in sessions with mental health experts, university services, and students to discuss more specific topics and concerns on a one-to-one or small group basis. Students can use this space to expand on topics that have been covered in other parts of the programme, or to ask specific questions about their individual experience and be supported to access relevant support if needed.
