Chathurika Kannangara

Abstract The aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the student mental health crisis in Higher Education (HE), and how resilience and grit, two important positive psychological constructs, can be beneficial for university students’ success and wellbeing. As part of a discussion around some of the current approaches to intervening in wellbeing in universities, the chapter provides evidence for the use of PPIs for wellbeing in university students, alongside some of the challenges of implementing these in HE. It also provides an overview of the Thriving Students Framework and presents a case for a multicomponent approach to monitoring and improving educational success. In particular, a wellbeing framework that, alongside resilience, also recognises the importance of strengths, persistence in the face of difficulty, a growth mindset, self-control and mental wellbeing; Academic Tenacity. The implications of utilising this framework for educational attainment in university students are discussed. The Bolton Uni-Stride Scale (BUSS), a single short measure of academic tenacity that combines the attributes enabling measurement and intervention to support university students to thrive, is also presented for educators to use.

In this chapter the authors start by providing an overview of the concept of resilience and then examine its relevance for the field of education, mainly in the University sector. They review the linked concept of grit and its relevance for education. They describe three studies they conducted on grit. Although these studies show the importance of the concept of grit for university students, the authors claim that in order to thrive at university, students need other attributes. In their “thriving versus languishing” model, they highlight the importance of strengths use, persistence in the face of difficulty, resilience, a growth mindset, self-control and mental wellbeing. They conclude by describing a measure that combines these attributes into a single scale.