Here Professor Edward Peck, Vice-Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University and the Government’s appointed Student Support Champion, marks the launch of Compassionate Communication.
When working to improve student mental health, it is easy to become reactive. Across all areas of higher education there are many priorities clamouring for our attention within a context of financial pressure. In such a climate it can be tempting to try and fix the more visible symptoms rather than addressing the underlying causes.
The Higher Education Mental Health Implementation Taskforce is not immune from this pressure. During our sector-wide conversations in 2023 we heard an extensive list of tactical priorities, all of which were perfectly valid. Yet, as a Taskforce, we knew that we should respond rather than just react. We were commissioned by the previous government – and re-commissioned by the current one – to create a safer and more mentally healthy student experience, and we have focused on sustainable, long-term change. This has included the development of tools and guidelines for the sector, addressing identified risks through building on established and emerging good practice wherever possible.
I have welcomed very much the engagement and contribution of bereaved parents as members on the Taskforce, in their role as experts by experience. Thanks to them we have benefited from insights and ideas not readily accessible in other ways. They have shared how small triggers have played a large role in tragic events. Together with contributions from current students and student representatives, we were able to see that appropriate responses are not restricted to doing new things, but in some cases doing the same things in a better way.
Compassionate Communication was launched in November after a long period of development. It offers a resource to help the sector respond to this concern through the evolution of culture, policy, procedure and communication itself. The principle that sits behind it is simple: that we should take steps to make sure we are not contributing to student distress by the way we design and deliver our policies and processes, or via the method we choose to communicate about them.
An important group of experts in the development process was Academic Registrars, through their professional body, ARC, which has now taken custodianship of Compassionate Communication on behalf of the sector. Academic Registrars and their teams play vital roles in students’ experiences. They are responsible for thousands of small but important touchpoints with students and, as we have heard from parents and students, these are moments that matter. It is these interactions, perhaps even more than the actions of senior leaders or the objectives within strategy documents, which drive the culture of the organisation as experienced by its students.
Developing Compassionate Communication has been an exercise in responding. During its formulation, we discussed the tension between challenge and support, and the importance of context and timing when a message is received. We talked through big concepts, such as radical candour and transactional analysis, and small details, including the explanation of academic terms to new students. We drew on evidence-based practice from the UK and Canada. We discussed kindness with the Office of the Independent Adjudicator. We debated the right balance of responsibility and accountability between the higher education provider and the student. Importantly, we were also able to learn from examples of practice developed by higher education providers who are already implementing this approach.
Being responsive requires a great deal of us, and it demands a different way of thinking. It prompts us to ask broader questions and to think more holistically. Compassionate Communication is in many ways about ensuring that we do no harm, yet at a deeper level, it is about the nature of the learning community we want for our students and for ourselves. In a time of change and challenge for the sector and its students, perhaps this is one of the most important questions we can ask; the way we respond may well shape the student experience for many years to come.
Being in a minoritised group myself (on many levels) I think this is very important. Instinctively, I have incorporated it into my educational approach, and specifically address it in ‘relational pedagogy’ — engaging and enabling all students to ‘self-actualise in relation to the actualisation of graduate outcomesrealise their potential. The tools for educators are encapsulated in the process of ‘SOARing to Success’, and there is a specific section and self-assessment tool for staff and students to work on in partnership. This tool supports holistic health, wellbeing, happiness and resilience (in ed. 2, 2022)
I would very much like educators to try it, evaluate and send me feedback. Delivering the pedagogy and andragogy, creating a classroom atmosphere in which everyone is given a voice and value — all these underpin the methods throughout, with Appreciative Inquiry into Self, Opportunity, Aspirations, Results (SOAR framework).