Supporting students' mental health and wellbeing is an important part of what we do, and we do this in collaboration with the college's Wellbeing Team and via our Student Mental Health Agreement.
What is the Student Mental Health Agreement?
All colleges and universities in Scotland are advised to create an agreement in partnership with their Students’ Associations that commits both parties to supporting student mental health and wellbeing.
In 2024, the Students' Association worked with the College to create an agreement which would run until the end of the 2026 academic year. This agreement was revised in August 2025 to reflect changes taking place at the college.
Reflecting on the changes to the most recent edition of the Student Mental Health Agreement, Anna Vogt, Assistant Principal Student Experience said:
"Edinburgh College is proud to work alongside ECSA on our Student Mental Health Agreement. This partnership working means that we can embed the student voice in all of our mental health support and activity.
Academic session 24/25 brought many opportunities to enhance our collaborative working and to develop the services that we offer to our students. The College also continued (and still continues) to face financial pressure.
The current Student Mental Health Agreement referenced continuing the Student Counselling service for the duration of the agreement. Our Student Counselling team had been funded by external funding since the creation of the service and the College had hoped to be able to find the money to continue to the service. Unfortunately, this was not possible and the College took the difficult decision to close the Student Counselling service in June 2025.
Edinburgh College remains committed to supporting our student’s mental health and wellbeing and students can access support from a variety of teams, including the Safeguarding and Wellbeing team. Additionally, we continue to invest in staff training that is focussed on what our students are telling us they need support with. We are also working hard to build up referral processes and partnerships with external partners and this is a key focus for academic session 25/26."
If you would like to read the full updated version of the Student Mental Health Agreement, you can find it here.
