PODCAST: Mental health and Covid-19

This week’s Wonkhe Show is a special issue dedicated to supporting good emotional and mental health as we come to terms with the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for universities. We take stock of how the world has changed in the last week, what the impacts might be and how university staff and students can maintain good mental health and wellbeing during the crisis.

With Fran Longstaff, Head of Psychology at Fika and John de Pury, Assistant Director of Policy at Universities UK. Featuring an interview with Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, Pro-Vice Chancellor at Coventry University.  Hosted by Debbie McVitty.

Items this week:

• The sector is beginning to teach online, and is rapidly learning that simply replicating face to face approaches is not enough. Debbie Holley examined how assessment can still be meaningful when learners are not on campus.
• Cut-throat competition over students is the opposite of what we need in a crisis, argued Jim Dickinson, who looks at the choices facing OfS and DfE over Covid-19.
• The changes some providers are making in response to Covid-19 may prefigure a larger change in the way we think about higher education. Mark Johnson asked what happens when we are all precarious.
• Neil Heckels from the Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) on getting university research into Government decision making.
• It may feel like a way off, but what is happening now will affect students applying to university for September 2020 entry. Michelle Morgan set out the questions we need to be considering.
• Coronavirus Covid-19 puts pressure on every part of the university. Simon Horrocks considered what communications teams need to be doing.
• Learners are increasingly using “DIY” online resources to support study and professional development. Pearson’s Ellen Wilson on new research that digs deeper into the trend.
• Jim Dickinson rounded up some things SUs have been raising with universities wise enough to let them in the Covid-19 planning room. 

Get involved

To get involved in The Wonkhe Show, email team@wonkhe.com