£5k funding for mental health resources

The project, funded by UKCISA, will research the emotional and psychological needs of international students at the University and consult them to develop culture-appropriate solutions.

The goal is to understand and make a positive impact on the mental health of students who come from diverse backgrounds and are adjusting to life as a student in the UK.

Through one-to-one interviews and a world café event with group discussions, the Scholars themselves will be encouraged to work creatively to generate ideas and plans for the support provisions.

This will shape the planning and design of the practices and resources that are put in place. By understanding and building meaningful resources around mental health alongside Scholars, the research will recognise the inspiring journeys that led them to the UK and celebrate their contributions to our University, the student body, and wider Edinburgh community.

We are excited to work with academics such as Lorena Georgiadou from the School of Health in Social Science to take closer look at the wellbeing experience of our Scholars on campus. While our Scholars do bring unique experiences to their learning journeys at Edinburgh, we are looking forward to the opportunity to collaboratively build wellbeing resources with them that will not only benefit our group of students, but also global access students across the University and the wider Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program community.

Johanna Holtan

The project is a unique opportunity to further understand Scholars’ experiences, develop tools and resources to increase our support of students with diverse backgrounds across the university and to inform the practices of other UK universities and Mastercard Foundation partners worldwide who support Scholars from Africa.

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