The British Council is seeking a supplier to devise, deliver and facilitate the British Council’s new Student Wellbeing and Mental Health MOOC

The Study UK campaign

The Study UK campaign launched in November 2016 and is delivered by the British Council in partnership with UK government’s GREAT Britain campaign, which encourages people to visit, invest, and study in the UK

Study UK shares the best of British education with an international audience to attract the brightest and best students to come and study here. It is the only national-level campaign that promotes the UK as a first-choice study destination all over the world.
As part of our digital advertising campaign, we raise awareness of the UK’s strengths in relation to our three key pillars – great student experience; employability and career opportunities; and academic excellence and quality of teaching. We want our content to deliver these key messages to our prospective international students and influencers to encourage them to choose to study in the UK.

Introduction to project/programme:

The British Council is seeking a supplier to devise, deliver and facilitate the British Council’s new Student Wellbeing and Mental Health MOOC. We recognise that moving to the UK to study comes with its challenges and that university support services are limited. As such, we are seeking to produce this course as we want to improve the offer that we have for our prospective and current students. The course should help them proactively build good self-care habits to support their wellbeing and mental health and help them help themselves, as well as signposting them to resources and external organisations who will be able to support them, beyond their universities.

The course will run for 2-3 weeks – once in August 2023 and once in March 2024 – and learners will be expected to spend about 3-4 hours per week on course content. Video should be central to the content and a tutor/tutors will appear repeatedly throughout the course.

This course will be delivered online and will be facilitated by the supplier.

What should be covered:

The British Council requests that proposals will suggest which module titles and descriptions should be carried out.

However, some areas that we would be interested to see reflected in the course content are:

• Transitioning between different stages of education/employment – e.g. from high school/secondary school to university; undergraduate to master’s; master’s to employment
• Moving abroad (to study) for the first time
• Culture shock and homesickness
• Time and stress management techniques for students
• How to build a healthy routine for the mind, body and
• How to identify and get support for mental health conditions (including pre-existing)
• What to do and where to find support for a variety of issues – emphasising that wellbeing/mental health support is not just for being going through crises
• Case studies about real students who have been experiencing difficulties and what they did/where they went to try and deal with their issues

Expected outcomes

By the end of the course, learners should:

• Be able to better navigate living in a new culture/environment
• Be able to manage their stress-levels and better manage their time
• Be able to build a healthy routine for the mind, body and soul
• Feel confident to ask for help – whatever they need
• Know what to do and where to go to find specific kinds of support in relation to their needs
• Hear case studies on people with lived experience of students and people working with students in relation to student wellbeing and/or mental health challenges
• Feel more prepared to transition from their current level of studies to their next steps