The following is a link to a resource from the 'Are You Ok?' website about healthy LGBTI relationships, including where to go for help if things get tough. Click here for more information.

This report by Thursdays in Black is an investigation into student experiences of sexual violence prior to and during tertiary education in New Zealand. It includes statistics regarding the prevalence of sexual assault, an examination of the flaws in the current sexuality education at secondary school and tertiary level (particularly surrounding consent), and several urgent calls to action. 

The report can be viewed here and the results of their sexual violence survey can be found here. 

A report by the World Government Summit, in collaboration with the International Positive Education Network. "Positive education views school as a place where students not only cultivate their intellectual minds, but also develop a broad set of character strengths, virtues, and competencies, which together support their well-being [...] This report is broken into five sections: one leader’s perspective and introduction to positive education and its history; case studies from primary, secondary, and tertiary schools around the world that are actively implementing positive education; and policy perspectives on positive education."

The report can be found here.

This policy brief covers the case for regulation of alcohol marketing on social media sites. This is a highly relevant issue for student drinking.

"The pervasiveness of alcohol-related content and alcohol marketing on social media sites works to normalise alcohol consumption, including excessive drinking [...] We summarise the evidence supporting the need for an urgent review of alcohol marketing via social media – a challenge that can no longer be ignored if New Zealand is to make a serious commitment to reduce the harm caused by alcohol to our young people and communities."

The full report is available here.

"The Survey of Work and Wellbeing in the Tertiary Education Sector surveyed academic and support staff from New Zealand universities, polytechnics, technical institutes and wananga. Almost 3,000 respondents completed the survey, the majority of whom were union members. The findings detailed in this report paint a picture of deteriorating wellbeing, with intensifying workloads and reduced satisfaction with work in the sector."

Full report available here

"The main aim was to review the effectiveness of population or settings-based strategies and approaches for promoting the mental wellbeing of students and staff within universities. This policy brief focuses on the papers relating specifically to mental health outcomes (around a third of the papers reviewed). The remaining two thirds of papers were focused on alcohol, tobacco or other drugs; we have included a short summary of these papers in the ‘Discussion’ section."

Full report available here

The South Island Tertiary Forum was held recently on 16 November at the University of Canterbury, with about 50 people in attendance. This is the PechaKucha session with 8 short and punchy presentations on a range of topics including; Staff Wellbeing: why and how (Katharina Näswall, UC), The stories: international student wellbeing (Jonie Chang, UC), Student Wellbeing Advisory Group (Emily Barker, UCSA), Get-it-together Series 2017 (Catherine Staite, UCSA), Thursdays in Black and Mental Health Week (Jayne Smith, Lincoln), Building resilience in the curriculum (Tracy Clelland, UC), UC PERMA-culture: a healthy place to live and learn (Rose Reynolds, UC), and South Island Tertiary Health and Wellbeing Survey findings (Anna Thorpe, CDHB).

Videos of presentations are available here

"Tau Ora is a holistic organisational wellness programme developed at Te Wananga o Aotearoa. The programme was launched in 2007 and has been hugely successful with more than 50% of staff engaging with the programme each year."

Website available here

"The Wellbeing in Higher Education Network (WiHEN) promotes the exchange of ideas, collaboration and supportive relationships for practitioners applying, and researching the application of, wellbeing science, organisational and positive psychology, and positive education in tertiary and higher education environments."

Website available here

"This paper will present the following: 1. The post-secondary mental health challenge and rationale for institutional action; 2. The scope of the challenge at UBC; 3. Guidance from the literature, best practices research and key organizations on the components of a successful campus mental health strategy; 4. Overview of the draft UBC Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy; 5. Discussion of current mental health initiatives at UBC; 6. Discussion of priority actions and next steps under the UBC Mental Health and Wellbeing strategy"

Full discussion paper available here