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Higher Education Student Support Champion

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In June 2022, the Department for Education (DfE) announced the appointment of Nottingham Trent University Vice Chancellor, Edward Peck as the first Higher Education Student Support Champion (HESSC). On University Mental Health Day 2024, the DfE asked Edward to extend his role until June 2025.

The role of the HE Student Support Champion was created to help universities support students thrive in their studies and to ensure they can access appropriate help as and when they need it.

Edward has engaged with providers of higher education – both universities and colleges – sector agencies, students, and parents to discuss challenges and opportunities, and to share best practice on approaches to keeping students engaged with all aspects of campus life. This includes how to spot the early warning signs of those who are struggling with their studies or with their mental health.

If you wish to contact Professor Peck directly, please email hessc@ntu.ac.uk.

There is a determination within higher education institutions to get this right and I will promote effective and evidence-based best practice across the sector, enabling higher education providers to offer the widest possible range of ways to support students.

NTU Vice Chancellor, Professor Edward Peck

Priorities

During summer 2022, the Student Support Champion undertook an extensive consultation with the sector to define the priorities for his work. These themes are derived from these conversations, as well as ongoing discussion with the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education. This dialogue will continue as the programme develops and progress is made on this important agenda.

Discover more about upcoming priorities and guidance available to help universities support students:

Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce

Edward chairs the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce (HEMHIT) which was established in June 2023 by the Minister of State for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education in response to the Parliamentary debate calling for the creation of a statutory duty of care. The HEMHIT’s role will be to oversee the development and delivery of the measures announced by the Minister, including:

  • Support the adoption of common principles and baselines for approaches across providers, including through charter memberships and the development of a mental health governance framework.
  • Promote approaches for better identification of students in need of mental health support (summary note of the roundtable held on this topic).
  • Develop a ‘Compassionate Commitment’ for more sensitive student-facing policies, procedures, and communications in the sector (summary note of the roundtable held on this topic). This Commitment was published in 2024.
  • Support sector engagement with the national review of students suicides in higher education.
  • Develop guidance on collaboration between higher education providers and the NHS.

Resources:

Compassionate Communication in Higher Education

Compassionate Communication is an output of the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. It sets out standards of practice for higher education providers in England which it is expected will be considered when updating policies and procedures and refreshing Student Charters.

Compassionate Communication is owned by the Academic Registrars’ Council (ARC) and this material is hosted by the HE Student Support Champion on their behalf.

The principles of Compassionate Communication are consistent with the principles of the Good Practice Framework published by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA) and may be taken into consideration by the OIA when reviewing student complaints about higher education providers in England. See Kindness at the OIA - OIAHE.

View the full Compassionate Communication statement.

Case studies:

A Competency Framework for Responding to Students in Distress

The Competency Framework is an output of the Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. It sets out key approaches, skills and knowledge that enable all student-facing staff to respond more effectively and consistently to student wellbeing and mental health needs.

It acts as a guide to higher education providers and professional bodies as they refine their learning and development programmes for student-facing staff, ensuring students receive a safe and helpful response from whoever they interact with.

View the Competency Framework.

Student Support Re-design and the Student Needs Framework

Edward recognises that the student support landscape is complex, and evidence on what works is still being established. We have collaborated with Universities UK’s Student Policy Network and AdvanceHE to develop the Student Needs Framework, which defines the fundamental needs of students and provides a framework for HEPs to use when considering how they re-design their student support to deliver a comprehensive, coherent and evidence-based system.

The Framework is published on the AdvanceHE website and will be accompanied by case studies illustrating how the Framework is being used in practice.

Phase two of this work will begin in May 2024, which will include further collaboration with AdvanceHE and a newly established Reference Group to develop additional resources for HEPs to employ when undergoing transformative student support redesign. This work will build from emerging good practice that is being generated from the wider work of the HE Student Support Champion and the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce.

Resources:

The Reference Group first met in November 2024; the slides and meeting summary can be viewed using the following links.

Transition to HE

Over the summer of 2023 Edward chaired a series of roundtables, in partnership with Unite Students, to discuss the changing needs of school and college learners and how having more information about students might improve HE transition activities. Summary notes from these three roundtables can be found below.

In May 2024, Edward published a report with Unite Students derived from the roundtables held over summer 2023, as well as research conducted by Unite Students. The report provides an overview of the experiences of young people transitioning into higher education, and offers recommendations for policymakers, higher education providers, schools and colleges, and wider public services.

Resources:

Student analytics

Student analytics are going to become ever more sophisticated, predicting as well as reporting on student engagement and wellbeing.

So far, the work has focused on highlighting the key data that are needed to develop descriptive and predictive analytics for engagement and wellbeing monitoring. In March 2023 we published with Jisc a Core Data Specification for Student Analytics, which can be found below.

The topic of wellbeing analytics now forms one of the strands of the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. For more information please refer to that section of this page.

Resources:

Information sharing

This work will tackle how colleagues working in the sector should share information when there are significant concerns about a student.

In 2023, we published guidance on effective data sharing between Private Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) providers and HEPs. Additional guidance, on sharing information between Students’ Unions (SUs) and HEPs, was published in April 2025.

Resources:

HE Student Support Champion termly sector updates

2024

2023

Contact us

Please get in touch with any comments or feedback at hessc@ntu.ac.uk.