The Princess of Wales visited Nottingham Trent University’s Clifton Campus today (11 October) as part of a series of engagements across the country to mark World Mental Health Day.
The Princess of Wales visited Nottingham Trent University (NTU) to hear how we, and the University of Nottingham (UoN) ensure students have the right mental health support around them as they begin the new university year.
A reel of the visit is available on the Prince and Princess of Wales’ official Instagram.
At NTU, we encourage proactive mental health management by focusing on participation and helping students to develop a sense of belonging and connectivity to their community. We work together with UoN to share best practice on this and many other issues, as part of our ‘Universities for Nottingham’ approach to positive collaboration.
During the visit, Her Royal Highness met with students and colleagues who go above and beyond to help students with their mental health, before taking part in wellbeing activities.
The Princess learned how students are supporting each other at the University of Nottingham through a discussion with three students about peer-to-peer mentoring. She then participated in an activity that is being used as part of a broader induction for new NTU students. The ‘step in circle’ is part of our ‘Welcome Workshop’ which encourages students to share experiences to help them build confidence, to proactively manage their wellbeing and raises awareness of the wide range of support networks available to them.
Finally, Her Royal Highness learned how we use data derived from student behaviour to identify those who may not be thriving through our ‘dashboard’ which uses learning analytics to measure a student’s engagement. When a student stops engaging, this can indicate issues with their wellbeing and prompts us to proactively reach out to understand the student’s reason for disengagement and help navigate them to appropriate support. The information is also given directly to the students to help them manage their own learning and is used for personalised support and tutorial discussions with colleagues.
Alongside learning about our student engagement dashboard and taking part in our ‘step in circle’ The Princess of Wales also got a chance to meet students from our extra-curricular societies – including knitting, sports, and our mental health champions.
Our knitting society also contributed to The Princess of Wales’ gift; three teddies for her children with knitted initial jumpers – G, C and L. This reflected the importance of taking time for activities that support mental wellbeing and highlighted the variety of extra-curricular societies our students can take advantage of.
Professor Sharon Huttly, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Development and Performance) at Nottingham Trent University comments:
“We are extremely honoured to welcome Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales to Nottingham Trent University to highlight the importance of mental wellbeing as part of World Mental Health Day.
“We were proud to demonstrate how NTU supports students with their mental health by focusing on participation and helping them to develop a sense of belonging and connectivity to their community.
“Her Royal Highness was able to participate in various activities with students during her visit. This included a ‘step in circle’, where together they shared experiences to help build confidence and to proactively manage mental wellbeing, which the students found extremely beneficial.
“We want to thank Her Royal Highness for her passion and interest in a topic that affects many of our university community.”
Anna O’Hara, President of the Nottingham Trent Students’ Union said of the visit: “We were delighted to host The Princess of Wales at Nottingham Trent University to talk about the importance of mental health in young people. Going to university is a big life change, for some it is the first time living away from home. A welcoming community is extremely important to all students and we know how extra-curricular activities from knitting to sports give us a sense of belonging.
“We were pleased to be able to show Her Royal Highness some of the wellbeing activities that take place at NTU and speak to some of our students about their experiences.”