Students are increasingly turning to religious leaders for mental health support

May 12, 2019 by

by Matthew Guest, Christian Today:

High rates of mental ill health among students, including some tragic cases of suicide, have highlighted the vulnerability of many young people facing the pressures of higher education while away from home for the first time.

University leaders have affirmed their commitment to strengthening student support, and counselling services are busier than ever. But one resource is often overlooked: chaplaincy. Chaplains are representatives of religion or belief organisations who work within universities to support the religious and pastoral needs of the communities.

In our recently published study, Kristin Aune, Jeremy Law and I, mapped and examined the work of university chaplains across the UK’s universities. The results reveal an aspect of university life that is rarely acknowledged – and one that challenges the image of the university as a space where the pursuit of knowledge leaves no place for religion. Indeed, our findings reveal how chaplaincy is an integral part of campus life within many universities.

Growth and diversification

There are at least 1,000 chaplains working in universities across the UK, representing all the major faiths – as well as humanism. But it wasn’t always this way. Before the 1960s, higher education chaplaincy was mainly confined to the ancient universities like Oxford or Cambridge, who appointed Anglican clergy as chaplains to their colleges. By the mid-1980s, most universities had an Anglican chaplain.

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