Being WELL in the Neoliberal University:
Conceptualising a Whole University Approach to Student
Wellbeing and Experiences of Living and Learning at UK
Universities in a Neoliberal Higher Education Context

Abstract

Background
Epidemiological trends demonstrating disproportionate, proliferating, and unequal student and staff mental health outcomes at UK universities have coincided with a marked neoliberalisation of higher education. With few exceptions however, these trends have been conceptualised in isolation,
with epistemological predisposition towards isolated individual-level explanations and interventions for distress across student mental health research that are in inherent tension with the implementation of a whole university approach to wellbeing in policy and practice. To address these conceptual, methodological, and practice-based gaps across the field, this thesis seeks to address the primary research question: ‘how do students experience wellbeing and living and learning in a neoliberal higher educational context and what are the implications for the conceptualisation and operationalisation of a whole university approach?’

Design and Methods
Grounded in pragmatist ontology, a multi-phase research design is applied containing five symbiotic studies. Study one synthesises biopsychosocial systems-based theories of wellbeing; cross-disciplinary neoliberal critique; and
Foucaultian philosophy on subjectivity to conceptualise a multi-dimensional relationship between the neoliberal higher education system and student wellbeing. Study two conducts an integrative and interpretative narrative literature review to identify the social, academic, and financial determinants of student wellbeing within the context of the neoliberal higher education system. Study three utilises a cross-sectional survey with a national sample of 815 undergraduate and postgraduate students to identify the prevalence, variance, and associations of salient social, academic, and financial determinants of wellbeing with identifiable socio-material and socio-psychological neoliberal conditions. Study four performs ten student focus groups to explore student experiential narratives of wellbeing and living and learning in the neoliberal system, whilst eliciting recommendations for policy and practice. Study five uses expert interviews with nine relevant stakeholders to explore the influence of neoliberal socio-material and socio-psychological conditions on service delivery and elucidate recommendations for the conceptualisation and operationalisation of a whole university approach.

Findings
Taken together, the findings present preliminary evidence that identifiable neoliberal higher education principles and policies mediate student exposure, both socio-materially and socio-psychologically, to academic, social, and financial determinants which demonstrably, detrimentally, and differentially impact on subjective wellbeing. It is argued therefore that pragmatic conceptualisation and operationalisation of a whole university approach must be contextualised within the neoliberal higher education
system. Implications for policy, practice, and research are presented.