The prevalence of higher education (HE) students who are neurodivergent (ND) and/or have mental health (MH) challenges is rising. Consequently, we need to find effective strategies to best support these students and enhance academic outcomes. Providing visible role models is one strategy that is largely unexplored in HE. This can be possible by utilising staff who are willing to disclose and/or share their experiences with students.
At the University of Nottingham, several such strategies have been used to promote the visibility of ND and MH role models to students. Firstly, this included panel events focused on ND or MH where the panels consisted of staff with lived experience of ND or MH challenges and all students were welcome to attend. The second strategy consisted of focus groups with ND students (self-identified), led by ND staff, leading to greater understanding of the ND student experience, but also enhanced support for the participating students as a result of the supportive discussions. The third strategy was a ND staff experience poster campaign to raise awareness of shared challenges between ND staff and students and to enable learning of others’ effective coping strategies. Finally, a Grid of Life self-reflection exercise has been used in live sessions with students, led by staff with lived experience of MH challenges, to enhance their wellbeing and resilience by addressing work-life balance.
In this seminar, the details of these initiatives and feedback from participating students will be shared, to demonstrate the value and effectiveness of role model strategies for students, especially to those who directly relate. It is hoped this will inspire other learning developers in HE to introduce similar approaches within their own settings, with the knowledge that there can be benefit to students in staff being open about their own ND or MH challenges. These could coincide with national awareness times related to neurodiversity or mental health e.g. neurodiversity celebration week in March, or mental health awareness week in May (in the UK), or could be helpful during wobble week in autumn semester.