#24 Healthy Campus

Listen to the latest episode which delves into the area of the Healthy Campus work underway in third-level institutions across the country. Under the Higher Education Healthy Campus Charter and Framework led by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), this sector continues to increase its delivery of health and wellbeing work in conjunction with the Department of Health, Healthy Ireland. Our guests are Martina Mullin from Trinity College Dublin and Dr. Teresa Hurley from Technological University Dublin, who share their insights and learning from their on the ground work with host Fergal Fox. As a setting, higher education has huge potential, to not only improve health and wellbeing but also improve academic performance, students' sense of belonging, improve staff-student relationships, reduce stress and link to any number of priority issues for young adults and staff. Many of these benefits are discussed and given real world examples in the podcast.

 

A Healthy Campus ‘adopts a holistic understanding of health, takes a whole campus approach and aspires to create a learning environment and organisational culture that enhances the health and wellbeing of its community and enables people to achieve their full potential’. It’s about moving away from a focus only on individuals to ensure we are creating campuses that are conducive and supportive to health and wellbeing, a whole campus approach. This includes how health can be supported through teaching and learning, leadership, governance and strategy, student services, the physical environment, and campus culture. It aims to foster an ethos of care, compassion, and inclusion on campuses. The Healthy Campus Process, contained in the Framework, outlines an inclusive, coordinated approach to improving health and wellbeing. To find out more about the work underway in this area see the HEA’s Healthy Campus webpage.

 

The HEA oversees the strategic development of the Irish higher education and research system, with responsibility for the effective governance and regulation of higher education institutions and the higher education system. As well as responsibility for the Healthy Campus Framework, the HEA also oversees the implementation of the National Student Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Framework.

 

Produced by GKMedia.ie