Promoting positive outcomes in higher education: Supporting undergraduate student mental health and well-being

The higher education environment, while ideally stimulating, is often also inherently challenging and stressful for students (Baik et al., 2019; Fried et al., 2022). Such challenges and stressors may have both positive and negative impacts on student mental health and well-being. For students entering university with prior mental health conditions, the stress of the transition to higher education can be further exacerbated by disciplinary specific course requirements such as work-integrated learning [WIL] (Auerbach et al., 2016). For such students, mental health content taught within curricula, may also exacerbate symptoms (Woof et al., 2021). This column explores the stressors commonly experienced by undergraduate university students, and their impact on their educational experiences, mental health and well-being. Additionally, it discusses strategies designed to proactively prepare students to survive and thrive throughout their university journey and support the staff providing one-on one support to students.