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<p>As autonomous and independent organisations, it is for higher education institutions
(HEIs) to determine what welfare and counselling services they need to provide to
their students. Each institution will be best placed to identify the needs of their
particular student body, including taking actions in line with any legal responsibilities
under the Equality Act 2010.</p><p> </p><p>Government does not hold information on
the number of students accessing university counselling and wellbeing services.</p><p>
</p><p>An independent research report in this area was published on 4 September 2017
by the Institute for Public Policy Research, ‘Not by Degrees: Improving student mental
health in the UK's universities’ (<a href="https://ippr.org/research/publications/not-by-degrees"
target="_blank">https://ippr.org/research/publications/not-by-degrees</a>).</p><p>
</p><p>This report states that: “Our survey reveals that HEIs have – over the past
five years – experienced significant increases in demand for (overall) student services…
94 per cent report an increase in demand for counselling services, while 61 per cent
report an increase of over 25 per cent”.</p><p> </p><p>The department is working closely
with Universities UK (UUK) on their ongoing programme of work on mental health in
higher education. As part of this, UUK launched their Step Change programme on 4 September
2017, which encourages higher education leaders to adopt mental health as a strategic
imperative and implement a whole institution approach.</p><p> </p><p>The Children
and Young People’s Mental Health Green Paper published on 4 December 2017 outlines
government’s plans to set up a new national strategic partnership focused on improving
the mental health of 16-25 year olds. This partnership will support and build on the
work of UUK and consider the Green Paper’s proposed initiatives to improve the mental
wellbeing of students in higher education.</p>
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