Compassionate Campus

Building a Compassionate Campus:

The Nurture-U Guidance document

The Compassionate Campus project is now complete. We have brought together our findings to create guidance for universities: "Building a More Compassionate Campus". This guidance invites university policy makers, leadership and staff to ask questions of their departments and institutions in relation to compassionate practices on campus. It has been designed to be used as a standalone guide or alongside the University Mental Health Charter.

Please click here or on the image to download. All feedback and thoughts very much appreciated, email nurture-u@exeter.ac.uk.

Please keep scrolling to see more of our Compassionate Campus findings. You can find our published academic papers by clicking here.

Why have we made
this guidance?

In this video, Lecturer and Nurture-U Researcher Dr Jemima Dooley explains why the concept of Compassionate Campus is so important, and how we hope the guidance document will help university staff and students.

How can we make our campuses kinder and more supportive?

The Compassionate Campus project took place in Exeter and King's College London.

We collected student stories and experiences, and fed them back into the university systems with the aim of enacting real change. We have conducted focus groups, sociality workshops, and anthropological studies.

Below are short films created with students and leadership, by our visual researcher Dr Polly Card. After watching, please read and download our Compassionate Campus Guidance document, developed from our research findings.

Compassionate Leadership

By Polly Card

Living with Chronic Illness as a Student

Student Story: Lauren Asare

By Polly Card

Commuting and Connections

Student Story: Eleanor Zalick

By Polly Card

Exeter Community Garden and Compassion

By Polly Card

Wellbeing and Medical Students

Student Story: Libby Terrieux-Taylor

By Polly Card

Here is a short film by student Tabatha Sherborne, showing student campus experience at the University of Exeter

By Tabatha Sherborne