Having taught at 6 universities across two countries (Australia/New Zealand) over the course of 20 years in academia, I have been specifically focused on student wellbeing and resilience skills over the last 5 years. In this session, I will draw on this experience to outline how we are creating bespoke and targeted programs to teach wellbeing and resilience skills to various bodies of the student population in most of need of such skills. Drawing on Jarden & Jarden (2015), I will focus on one such program that increases these skills for PhD students. Only 15% of students that enrol in a PhD complete, with the main reason for lack of completion being low resilience and wellbeing along a lengthy journey. I will focus on how these skills benefit such a journey, fit within a systems framework, and how they fit within the behemoth of the “university system”. In particular I will focus on how assessment, and readiness for change (i.e., receptivity to wellbeing programs), play a key part in implementation.
Jarden, A., & Jarden, R. (2015). Applied positive psychology in higher education. In Henning, Krägeloh, & Wong-Toi (eds.), Student motivation and quality of life in higher education. London: Routledge.