New IES report for HEFCE investigates support provision for students with mental health problems and intensive support needs

23 Jul 2015

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) has published a new report Understanding provision for students with mental health problems and intensive support needs. This report was the outcome of a joint IES and Researching Equity, Access and Participation Group (REAP) research project.

The aim of the project was to update HEFCE's understanding of institutional support provision for students with mental health problems and other impairments with high cost or intensive support needs.

In particular, the research explored:

how HE providers fund and provide support for students with severe mental health problems and impairments where intensive or multi-agency support is required;
the split of provision between in-house support services and external support agencies;
how HE providers balance factors in making decisions over the nature and extent of support offered with limited funding, and the impact on students; and
what the key pressure points and challenges for HE providers are.