A Theory-to-Practice Approach for Student Mental Health

Concerns about student mental health and wellbeing continue to permeate higher education. According to the 2024-25 Healthy Minds Study, about 37% of college students were experiencing depression. Some 32% were experiencing anxiety. And over a one-month period, 68% of students had experienced emotional or mental difficulties that hurt their academic performance. To help succeed in higher education, we need to make sure that they have adequate support to navigate the college years.  

In response to the ongoing mental health challenges students are facing, the Ed School developed a four-week online program in 2023: Mental Health in Higher Education: A Theory-to-Practice Approach for Student Well-Being. Designed and led by faculty chair, Lecturer Alexis Redding, the program was created to help higher education professionals evaluate institutional structures, student wellbeing, and design meaningful systems of support for all students.

Redding, a developmental psychologist and leading expert on mental health in young adulthood, focuses on providing mental health support to emerging adults and is the editor of the forthcoming book Mental Health in College: What Research Tells Us About Supporting Students which is based on the course and centers the research of the MHH faculty.

Here, she answers some questions about her work on mental health and the course, which will launch its third cohort in April 2026.

Tell us about the design of the course.
This course moves beyond a narrow focus on campus counseling centers to examine how colleges and universities can cultivate a campus-wide climate of care more broadly. The program follows the arc of what students experience from their arrival to college through the job search process and graduation. We think critically about issues such as belonging on campus, basic needs security, and achievement pressure. We explore ways to normalize mental health support throughout the college experience and embed supports that create lasting impact, helping students build the skills they need to thrive during college and beyond.

What do your participants learn in the course? 
One of the design features of the course is that we want everyone in a student services role to feel empowered to advocate for their students. We encourage our participants to work across the silos that exist in higher education to collaborate around our shared goals. Together, we think deeply about how students navigate institutional structures and the ways in which “friction points” at the institutional level prevent students from getting the support that they need. We have a faculty of researchers and practitioners who help us tackle these topics, including achievement pressure, navigating the “hidden curriculum,” sense of belonging, and the unique needs of student veterans.

Tell us about the faculty. 
One of my main design goals was to break down the disciplinary silos between scholars and practitioners. One of the driving ideas behind the design of the program was to bring together a group of faculty from a range of fields who would not typically be in conversation with each other or who are unlikely to engage directly with an audience of student affairs practitioners. Being able to build a bridge between different fields and practice areas has been key to helping our participants think in new ways about how they can create better support for their students. Together, we think deeply about what students experience, why, and what we can do about it.

Why is a course like this so important these days?
The challenges students are facing today are more visible, more complex, and more intertwined with the rest of campus life than ever before. Anxiety, burnout, and loneliness don’t show up only in counseling offices — they show up in classrooms, residence halls, at home, and in the workplace. This course empowers practitioners to think in a new way about how to create a truly caring community to support student well-being. It frames mental health as a shared responsibility across campuses and helps us build a toolkit to design programs that help all students thrive.