Common mental disorders and problems in young people aged 16 to 25 years have been increasing and now recognized to be a public health crisis. University students show parallel trends to the general population the same age, especially in females and minoritized subgroups. The causality appears complex related to an interplay of psychological, sociocultural and biological challenges around consolidating self-identity, making new social connections, navigating higher education, and assuming more responsibilities for decisions and lifestyle – all whilst brain development remains a work in progress. This generation of young people are also facing more economic uncertainty, higher competition for fewer positions and the future burden of the climate crisis. This presentation will describe mental health outcomes and access to care from the U-Flourish Student Well-Being study, a biannual electronic survey study enrolling and following successive large cohorts of undergraduate students from 2018 at Queen’s and 2019 at Oxford Universities. In addition, salient targets suitable for early intervention will be discussed and pilot findings informing feasibility, acceptability and potential effectiveness of stepped digital interventions shared. Finally, opportunities for scalable and sustainable digital solutions to enhance early intervention in the context of a proposed model of student mental health care will be introduced for further discussion.

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