Newsletter 20/04/21

Calling all current first generation students at The University of Sheffield!

FirstGenSheffield are running a development and wellbeing session focusing on what it means to be first gen and how this identity can influence both your university and career experiences.

'What Does It Mean To Be First Gen' session on the 21st of April at 1pm-3pm

The session features an alumni speaker working at HM Treasury, providing insights into how being first gen shaped their career path.  The session also focuses on how to reflect on your own personal experiences and challenges of being first gen, such as imposter syndrome, and how to use these reflections and experiences and skills gained to stand out in job applications and interviews!

Win a £20 Amazon voucher 
or an Amazon Echo Dot!

Jisc Digital Experience Insights Survey

Tell us about your experiences of digital and online learning, and enter a prize draw to win one of six £20 Amazon vouchers or an Amazon Echo Dot!
 
Your experiences of digital learning over the last year are more important than ever before. We want to find out what has worked well for you, and what should be improved.
 
"'Have your say on your education! The university wants to know how you like to learn. While the pandemic has brought many challenges, for some it has made education more accessible and it's important that the university can identify what has worked for you the most moving forward. This is a fantastic opportunity to tell the university how you want your education  to be delivered and what teaching methods you find most valuable.” - Ellie Lynas, Education Officer, Students' Union
 
The ongoing pandemic has seen the use of digital tools at the University increase substantially and new methods of online learning embraced. We would like to hear your thoughts on how this has been handled, what areas have worked and what we can learn from this experience. This will help us to continue to offer the best learning experience possible which includes and, where appropriate, extends our digital provision.
 
Please take the JISC Digital Experience Insights Survey, and help us to improve the digital services that support your learning. The survey is anonymous, and you can withdraw from it at any point prior to submitting your responses.

Learn more about Student Mental Health

Poor mental health of further and higher education students is a growing public policy concern. A 2020 Insight Network survey of students from 10 universities suggests that “1 in 5 students have a current mental health diagnosis” and that “almost half have experienced a serious psychological issue for which they felt they needed professional help” - an increase from 1 in 3 in the same survey conducted in 2018. The global coronavirus pandemic and measures to contain it has led to a worsening of the levels of poor mental health among young people including students in higher education. In order to develop high quality interventions that seek to improve the mental health of young people in higher education it is necessary to have a good understanding of the factors that contribute to poor mental health and also those that strengthen mental wellbeing.

Elena and Fiona have both led reviews in the past year that have looked at these factors. In this session, they will describe the different approaches they used to look at this problem and some of the methodological challenges that arose as a result. These include the challenges of measuring mental health outcomes, and synthesising different study designs to identify causal factors.

Despite using different approaches both reviews found consistent messages about the factors that increase the risk of poor mental health occurring in student populations, the factors that are protective of mental wellbeing and interventions that merit further development and evaluation. They look forward to describing their results in more depth, and highlighting areas where further research is needed.