Healthier campuses, more productive students – a new holistic approach to student health

In a 2022 survey by British mental health charity Student Minds, 57% of respondents self-reported a mental health issue and 27% said they had a diagnosed mental health condition. This statistic is consistent with the 2023 data released by National Health Services England that more than 1 in 5 young people aged 17 to 25 years had a probable mental disorder.

According to the same NHS survey, young people with a probable mental disorder are more likely not to participate in a range of activities including exercising, spending time in green space or participating in groups or clubs. Coupled with issues such as poor sleep and eating problems as well as other social and financial pressures, the list of student health and well-being challenges across the higher education sector tend to be pretty long.

These factors can contribute to a decline in mental and physical health if not addressed proactively. It is fair to say that tackling student health challenges in the UK requires a comprehensive roadmap due to the wide scope of issues, a comprehensive roadmap that emphasizes early intervention, holistic support services and creating a culture of well-being within educational institutions to promote positive health outcomes among students.

University of Huddersfield recently made history for achieving the first WELL Certification across British higher education for its Jo Cox More in Common Centre, a student service facility serving all students on a daily basis. With this achievement, Huddersfield sheds a bright light on what other universities in the UK can emulate in terms of deploying such a comprehensive approach to student and employee well-being. The WELL Certification achievement under the WELL Building Standard (WELL) by the International WELL Building Institute, the global authority for transforming health and well-being through its people-first approach to buildings, organisations and communities, recognises excellence in building design, operations and organisational policies in place to prioritise people’s physical and mental health as well as productivity.

As illustrated in the case of University of Huddersfield, WELL offers a comprehensive framework that can significantly contribute to addressing student well-being issues in the UK educational settings. This evidence based, performance-verified rating system includes strategies for buildings and spaces designed to enhance the health and well-being of occupants such as advanced indoor air and drinking water quality, lighting that promotes productivity during the day and better sleep at night and more. What’s important to know is that universities can start off their WELL journey by updating operational protocols to achieve the policy-based WELL Health-Safety Rating while rounding up capital expenditure to expand to more comprehensive WELL certifications over time.

Here are a few examples that can help illustrate how a WELL Certified building supports our health. Designs and educational programmes promoting healthy eating, support programmes on substance abuse, comprehensive health benefits, ergonomic furniture and prompts to boost physical activities and engaging, community-building facilities with meaningful programming, all are within the parameter of the comprehensive 10 WELL Concept areas: Air, Water, Nourishment, Light, Sound, Movement, Thermal Comfort, Materials, Mind and Community. By incorporating principles from WELL, universities and support physical, mental, and social well-being among students. Within each of the WELL Concept areas are a number of evidence-based strategies encompassing design, operations and policy so that initiatives are integrated and health outcomes are holistic.

Let’s deep dive into a couple of strategy areas to fully understand WELL and its potential health impacts. As we all know, indoor air quality plays a critical role in respiratory health and overall well-being. Implementing strategies such as effective ventilation systems, air filtration, and minimising sources of indoor air pollution can improve air quality within educational buildings, mitigate risks of infectious diseases in densely populated areas like lecture halls, libraries, and student accommodation, and improve student productivity.

Another example is lighting design and optimisation. Access to natural light and appropriate artificial lighting not only enhances visibility and productivity but also regulates circadian rhythms, which are crucial for maintaining healthier sleep patterns and overall mental health.

The WELL strategies are designed to work together to advance occupants’ overall health and well-being. Many universities around the world have applied WELL strategies, serving as a comprehensive roadmap to guide their holistic approach to student and staff health and well-being so that the building design, facility operations and human resource policies and programmes all work in tandem, driving toward the same health outcomes under a shared, coordinated vision.

The University of Florida used WELL to guide its modernisation of a student healthcare centre from a century-old uninviting infirmary. The university’s intention is to make sure that all aspects from design, operations and policies come together to nurture student health.

The National University of Singapore achieved WELL Certification in 2019. The School of Design and Environment leveraged the WELL Standard to make itself an example of best practice among higher education to advance student health and building resilience. State University of New York’s College of Environment Science and Forestry, is committed to applying the WELL roadmap to advance student health and building resilience. In SUNY ESF’s case, it’s no easy feat to advance initiatives across its entire portfolio of 85 buildings. But a universally applicable standard with actionable strategies by WELL can make the ambition a lot easier than otherwise.

WELL makes endeavours such as those by NUS and SUNY scalable by providing a streamlined, cost-effective pathway - WELL at scale. It’s a subscription-based pathway for organisations that want to prioritise health and well-being across their entire enterprise or a portfolio of real estate. By participating in WELL at scale, organisations can scale and benchmark health and well-being impacts on all stakeholders.

Global organisations including nearly 150 Fortune 500 and Global 500 companies are leveraging the more than 500 health focused WELL strategies to address a myriad ways in which physical and social environments and organisational protocols can shape productivity, performance and well-being for their people. WELL at scale allows organisations to adopt and apply as many WELL strategies as possible and implement them at their own pace. Some organisations may want to achieve WELL Certification for all buildings, others may want to focus on indoor air quality features across the board to kick it off, and others yet may pick and choose their own priorities to work on, for example, a university-wide practice on drinking water solutions up to the WELL threshold.

The WELL at scale pathway makes good sense for large entities with complex organisational structures like universities in that health strategies are universally applicable; implementations are scalable and benefits are equitable. Universities can also use their WELL achievement to benchmark and report on their progress in advancing social sustainability. Learn more: www.wellcertified.com