STUDENT WELLBEING
The majority of today’s students are drawn from the same age bracket that is experiencing these adverse labour market outcomes. Business schools must therefore be vigilant that the ambitions of our students are not undermined by such unprecedented developmental challenges. To achieve this, we must acknowledge and respect the unique impediments they have faced, while also supporting and challenging them to build the resilience that is necessary to enable them to flourish. Permissive & supportive adjustments Mental health conditions are protected under the 2010 Equalities Act in the UK and this means that universities have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments for those who declare such a condition. As the director of student experience for a business school with around 6,000 students, I have come to think of possible adjustments as populating a spectrum between ‘permissive’ and ‘supportive’. Permissive adjustments accommodate special needs by softening what we require of students, for example, by allowing someone to miss class when they are acutely unwell for a short period of time. Supportive adjustments, meanwhile, require universities to adjust the delivery of their services to enable students to meaningfully engage with teaching and learning as it is intended to be delivered. An example here would be providing an individual student with counselling or mentoring, or offering training to a faculty member so that they can better facilitate the class attendance of students with severe social anxiety. There are substantial pressures on institutions and academics to favour permissive adjustments over supportive ones, arguably to the detriment of learning and ultimately, their careers. By its very nature, a mental health condition can often lead struggling students to prefer non-attendance over
engaging with support to enable attendance. Plus, in an increasingly marketised higher education sector, students sometimes expect to be treated like customers. In this sense, they might feel they should be able to dictate the terms of their interaction with a service provider and assume that their preferences will prevail. Furthermore, from the institutions’ perspective, permissive adjustments are often less costly at a time when many are under considerable financial strain. Overcoming impediments At their heart, permissive adjustments fail to acknowledge the possibility that students might learn to manage, cope with or possibly even overcome these conditions in a way that empowers them with opportunities that would not otherwise be available to them. It may be profoundly uncomfortable in the short term for a particular student to attend class, sit an exam, speak publicly or work in a group. However, facing their anxieties in a safe and supportive atmosphere, such as that of a classroom, can result in improved learning and career prospects. What is more, disengaged students who can be supported back into attendance effectively often report improvements in both their mental health and level of satisfaction with their institution and course of study. So, what can business schools do to be more supportive of their students in ways that enhance their prospects for purposeful work? To begin with, teaching sessions need to be conducted in a way that feels safe for the substantial number of students with social anxiety. Faculty training, smaller class sizes and inclusive teaching practices can help with this. University systems can also be reviewed to reach out to students with poor attendance proactively, so they can be offered the appropriate pastoral and academic support to re-engage. The number of students supported by school progress committees at Sussex Business School, for example, has more than trebled over the last two years. Lastly, institutions should be more measured in the type of adjustments they offer so that, wherever possible, students are supported to engage with teaching and learning in a way that helps them overcome their impediments. This will reduce the chances of their academic experience and future career prospects being defined by these impediments.
Rashaad Shabab is a reader in economics and director of student experience at the University of Sussex Business School. With Michael Barrow, Shabab is also co-author of the 2024 edition of Statistics for Economics, Accounting and Business Studies, published by Pearson
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Business Impact • ISSUE 2 • 2024
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