King’s College London Attains Student Minds University Mental Health Charter Award

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The University Mental Health Charter Award is a Universities UK and Student Minds scheme. It is part of The Charter Programme which brings together universities committed to making mental health a university-wide priority to share practice and create cultural change. The ‘Award’ outcome recognises the success and progress King’s has made in this area, noting several examples of excellent and good practice, as well as making recommendations for further improvements.

Charter Awards are conferred by assessing a university’s approach to mental health and wellbeing against the Student Minds Charter framework. This provides a set of evidence-informed principles which support taking a whole-university approach to mental health and wellbeing. This approach must include both adequately resourced, effective and accessible mental health services and proactive interventions to support good mental health and wellbeing.

King’s is one of only 10 higher education institutions in the UK to achieve this since the scheme was launched by the charity in 2021.

We’re delighted to have achieved the University Mental Health Charter Award and my thanks go to everyone who supported this work. We applied for the Charter Award not only to affirm our commitment to mental health and wellbeing at King’s and to support every student in achieving their potential, but to benchmark our approach against research led, evidence-informed best practice. We know from student and staff feedback how important wellbeing support at King’s is and will continue to work closely with our entire community to create an environment where everyone can thrive.

Professor Shitij Kapur, Vice-Chancellor & President

King’s submitted a self-assessment report to evidence how the university is meeting the Charter Framework’s principles, alongside a student-led submission informed by focus groups and the King’s 100 student engagement panel. The assessment team also spent two days at King’s and met with staff and students from across the university and KCLSU to better understand the whole-university approach to student mental health and wellbeing.

The team effort involved more than 130 representatives from academic and professional services teams and students. It was led by Professor Juliet Foster, King’s Academic Lead for student mental health and wellbeing, and an Assessor of other institutions’ applications for the University Mental Health Charter Award.

I’m incredibly proud to have been part of the team who put together this successful application for the University Mental Health Charter, which has been a very important piece of work for King’s. While the Award is public recognition of the great work that King’s is doing on mental health and wellbeing, it also gave us time to reflect honestly on what we still want to achieve. I was delighted the assessment team commented on the fact that King’s had really entered into this spirit of the Charter, and I look forward to continuing to work to fully embed the whole-university approach to mental health and wellbeing across King’s.

Professor Juliet Foster, King’s Academic Lead for Student Mental Health and Wellbeing

King‘s will now remain a member of the University Mental Health Charter Award scheme to share the university’s own best practice and to learning from other universities. Annual progress reports to Student Minds will show how King’s is addressing the recommendations made by the assessment team, with the opportunity to apply for a re-assessment in 2029.