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The Princess of Wales visits Nottingham Trent University to mark World Mental Health Day

The Princess of Wales visited Nottingham Trent University’s Clifton Campus today (11 October) as part of a series of engagements across the country to mark World Mental Health Day.

    Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Wales at Clifton Campus
    The Princess of Wales at Clifton campus

    The Princess of Wales visited Nottingham Trent University (NTU) to hear how we, and the University of Nottingham (UoN) ensure students have the right mental health support around them as they begin the new university year.

    A reel of the visit is available on the Prince and Princess of Wales' official Instagram.

    At NTU, we encourage proactive mental health management by focusing on participation and helping students to develop a sense of belonging and connectivity to their community. We work together with UoN to share best practice on this and many other issues, as part of our ‘Universities for Nottingham’ approach to positive collaboration.

    During the visit, Her Royal Highness met with students and colleagues who go above and beyond to help students with their mental health, before taking part in wellbeing activities.

    The Princess learned how students are supporting each other at the University of Nottingham through a discussion with three students about peer-to-peer mentoring. She then participated in an activity that is being used as part of a broader induction for new NTU students. The ‘step in circle’ is part of our ‘Welcome Workshop’ which encourages students to share experiences to help them build confidence, to proactively manage their wellbeing and raises awareness of the wide range of support networks available to them.

    Finally, Her Royal Highness learned how we use data derived from student behaviour to identify those who may not be thriving through our ‘dashboard’ which uses learning analytics to measure a student’s engagement. When a student stops engaging, this can indicate issues with their wellbeing and prompts us to proactively reach out to understand the student’s reason for disengagement and help navigate them to appropriate support. The information is also given directly to the students to help them manage their own learning and is used for personalised support and tutorial discussions with colleagues.

    Alongside learning about our student engagement dashboard and taking part in our ‘step in circle’ The Princess of Wales also got a chance to meet students from our extra-curricular societies – including knitting, sports, and our mental health champions.

    Our knitting society also contributed to The Princess of Wales’ gift; three teddies for her children with knitted initial jumpers – G, C and L. This reflected the importance of taking time for activities that support mental wellbeing and highlighted the variety of extra-curricular societies our students can take advantage of.

    Professor Sharon Huttly, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic Development and Performance) at Nottingham Trent University comments:

    “We are extremely honoured to welcome Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales to Nottingham Trent University to highlight the importance of mental wellbeing as part of World Mental Health Day.

    “We were proud to demonstrate how NTU supports students with their mental health by focusing on participation and helping them to develop a sense of belonging and connectivity to their community.

    “Her Royal Highness was able to participate in various activities with students during her visit. This included a ‘step in circle’, where together they shared experiences to help build confidence and to proactively manage mental wellbeing, which the students found extremely beneficial.

    “We want to thank Her Royal Highness for her passion and interest in a topic that affects many of our university community.”

    Anna O’Hara, President of the Nottingham Trent Students’ Union said of the visit: “We were delighted to host The Princess of Wales at Nottingham Trent University to talk about the importance of mental health in young people. Going to university is a big life change, for some it is the first time living away from home. A welcoming community is extremely important to all students and we know how extra-curricular activities from knitting to sports give us a sense of belonging.

    “We were pleased to be able to show Her Royal Highness some of the wellbeing activities that take place at NTU and speak to some of our students about their experiences.”

    HRH at NTU
    Her Royal Highness visits Nottingham Trent University's Clifton campus

    • Notes for editors

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      About Nottingham Trent University

      Nottingham Trent University (NTU) has been named UK ‘University of the Year’ five times in six years, (Times Higher Education Awards 2017, The Guardian University Awards 2019, The Times and Sunday Times 2018 and 2023, Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2023) and is consistently one of the top performing modern universities in the UK. It is the 3rd best modern university in the UK (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023).

      NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with over 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of almost 8,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.

      NTU owns two Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for outstanding achievements in research (2015, 2021). The first recognises NTU’s research in science, engineering, arts and humanities to investigate and restore cultural objects, buildings and heritage. The second was awarded for research on the safety and security of global citizens.

      The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.

      NTU is rated 5/5 stars overall and for Teaching, Employability, Internationalisation, Research and Facilities (QS Stars 2022).

      NTU is a top five university for widening participation with 25% of NTU students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds (HESA 2021-22). It was the first UK university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge in 2018 and was named ‘University of the Year’ at the UK Social Mobility Awards in 2019,

      NTU is the most sustainable university in the UK and 2nd in the world (UI Green Metric University World Rankings, 2022).

    Published on 11 October 2023
    • Category: Press office