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The University of Central Lancashire's ‘Health Promoting University’ initiative has adopted a ‘settings‐based’ approach to health promotion, aimed at embedding within the organisation an understanding of and commitment to holistic health and to development of its healthpromoting potential. Action to promote mental well‐being is one of the initiative's priority foci, overseen by a multidisciplinary inter‐agency working group. Experience to date suggests that the university is an important setting for the protection, promotion and maintenance of mental well‐being. It also suggests that the Health Promoting University offers a robust theoretical framework that can enable the practical development and implementation of a holistic, comprehensive and integrative approach to promoting mental well‐being. This paper provides an overview of the Health Promoting University initiative, describes work carried out on mental well‐being and explores the challenges and opportunities involved in seeking to use the Health Promoting University framework to promote mental well‐being.

This paper reports on a research study examining opportunities for and characteristics of effective leadership for whole university approaches to health, well-being and sustainability.

A multi-method qualitative approach was used: semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with vice chancellors (n = 12) and UK Healthy Universities Network members (n = 10) and online questionnaires were completed by non-UK network coordinators (n = 6) and non-UK health promoting university coordinators (n = 10), supplemented with two interviews.

A total of two overarching themes emerged: opportunities to secure and sustain effective senior-level leadership and characteristics of effective senior-level leadership. Sub-themes under “Opportunities” included aligning work with core business so that health and well-being becomes a strategic priority, harnessing the personal qualities and values of senior-level advocates and using charters and policy drivers as levers to engage and catalyse action. Sub-themes under “Characteristics” included commitment to whole university/whole system working; an understanding that health underpins core business and is a strategic priority; enabling effective coordination through appropriate resourcing; balancing top-down and distributed leadership models and complementing strategic leadership with cultural change.

This study is one of the first to explore leadership in relation to health promoting universities. Drawing on the findings, it presents a guide to developing and securing effective leadership for health promoting universities – of value to researchers, practitioners and policymakers worldwide.

As settings‐based health promotion has gained ascendancy within the field, there has been increased interest in applying the approach within a diversity of contexts, one of the most recent being higher education. The University of Central Lancashire became one of the first few universities in Europe to establish a Health Promoting University initiative when it appointed a co‐ordinator in 1995. This article critically discusses the emergence of the settings‐based approach to health promotion and its application to the higher education sector. Focusing on the University of Central Lancashire as a case study, it considers the development of Health Promoting Universities. It is argued that while the settings‐based approach still faces the challenge of establishing clarity and consistency, the Health Promoting University does have the potential to provide a robust conceptual framework that can enable the practical development and implementation of an holistic, comprehensive and integrative approach to promoting health. The article ends with some reflections on challenges, opportunities and future directions.

The purpose of this paper is to map out and characterize existing health-promotion initiatives at Florida International University (FIU) in the USA in order to inform decision makers involved in the development of a comprehensive and a long-term healthy university strategy.

This study encompasses a narrative literature review on health promotion in higher education institutions and the identification and characterization of the various health-promotion initiatives associated with the subject of healthy universities at FIU. The characterization of health-promoting initiatives relied on the stakeholder analysis approach. Using the information obtained from this study, a map for promoting health initiatives with their location, capacities, leadership, and resources was established.

Most publications on health-promoting universities are limited to partial experiences’ reproduction. Self-financing health-promoting initiatives foster competition and work in silos. Gains of health-promotion interventions require governance, participation, and academic considerations. This study highlights the need for standards and minimum requirements for the mapping and characterization of health-promoting initiatives within institutions of higher education. The health-promotion strategy should fall within the university’s social responsibility policy.

This study helps identify organizational strengths and weaknesses and can inform decision makers seeking to establish policies and strategies as well as defining priorities and courses of action for healthy universities.

This chapter describes the Okanagan Charter (2015), a health promotions framework co-constructed by professionals, academics, campus leaders, and organizations focused on health and wellbeing. The Okanagan Charter outlines commitments and calls to action to support the health of people and the planet. Campuses and other organizations can sign on to the Charter; signatories are responsible for articulating their goals and actions that will address the commitments and calls to action. This chapter provides an overview of the development of the Okanagan Charter and its subsequent adoption across North America and Europe at post-secondary campuses and other organizations. The chapter examines the successes and the challenges of adoption and implementation and highlights the very recent exponential uptake of the Charter across the United States. The chapter concludes with implications and potential future directions of this health promotion movement, guided by the framework of the Okanagan Charter.

Government’s role and sex education are vital in promoting inclusivity and sexual health. To understand the impact that the legislation has had on sex education, it is necessary to evaluate it at the different training levels.

The method used is a critical review aimed at comparing educational and state legislation and its impact on Sex Education in Spain and the United Kingdom.

In most countries the compulsory contents in the curriculum are oriented to sexually transmitted infections and contraception. Nonetheless, this approach is deemed inadequate and restrictive, failing to cope with the challenges posed by globalization, including the increased spread of sexual infection. Legislative constraints hinder the comprehensive implementation of public health education strategies and social justice concerning sexuality.

Scope may miss legislative nuances and regional differences.

Findings emphasize comprehensive sex education to tackle modern challenges and to urge policy makers to incorporate these insights.

Enhanced sex education laws foster health equity that will contribute to reducing violence and improving positive attitudes and behaviours.

Insufficient analysis exists on the effects of ministry measures in sex education, connecting health, well-being and sustainability. This underscores the urgency of researching the legislative, educational and societal consequences, enabling interventions to address negative sexual attitudes and behaviours, including gender violence, biases against sexual diversity, emotional challenges, sexual freedom and health problems, based on respect for Human Sexual Rights.

The benefits of a student-led mental health promotion intervention on World Mental Health day result in tangible learning benefits for those students. The event occurs within the students’ own university. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This case study evaluates students’ experience on a mental health promotion intervention. This intervention was to enable students to experience running a health promotion intervention and develop their health promotion skills outside of their lectures. Students were recruited who had just completed a module on health promotion. Students had to plan and organise the intervention, which included involving other organisations and facilities both external and internal to the university. The experience was evaluated through the case study using as data collection a semi-structured interview.

Results indicated that students found the experience to be beneficial in deepening their understanding of health promotion, mental health awareness and in increasing their self-esteem. Limitations of this case study are in the argument for reproducibility of results, which is affected by the small number of students who took part.

There are opportunities to develop this idea further and to broaden the availability of the initiative, enabling more students from diverse backgrounds to experience putting theory into practice.

To the best knowledge of the author, this study, although with limitations, provided a good understanding on how to develop health promotion skills within a university setting. The outcomes of this study are mainly applicable to a health studies course, educators of mental health promotion, university mental health support services and research related to this topic, especially on promoting mental health awareness and education.

School health promotion is said to be most effective when implemented through a comprehensive, settings‐based, whole‐school approach. The purpose of this paper is to address the current lack of knowledge about the current state of teacher education for health promotion and its potential to further the development of settings‐based approaches.

This paper focuses on an analysis of initial teacher education for school health promotion in Austria by studying the curricula of the Universities of Teacher Education, as well as interviewing representatives from these institutions. A content analysis of the identified modules and a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts were conducted.

While there is more behaviour orientation than setting orientation identified in the curricula, the interviewees showed a broad understanding of health promotion that encompasses a settings view. The situation at the Universities of Teacher Education mirrors the situation in schools: there are similar supporting and hindering factors for the implementation of healthy settings.

A greater degree of focus in teacher education on the settings approach and the promotion of the skills required to implement it is needed, as well as the creation of health‐promoting Universities of Teacher Education.

The study makes recommendations about how to prepare future teachers to support the development of more effective approaches of school health promotion.

The purpose of this paper is to understand if effective road safety education is being provided to students by embedding educational programmes within a curriculum framework.

A qualitative methodology was used to gain in-depth understanding of the health-promoting initiatives of Saudi Arabian universities and colleges in preventing risky driving behaviour among students. Interviews were used to collect data from 11 faculty members.

Results suggest that educational programmes for changing the risky driving behaviour of students are still in their infancy. The findings raise questions about road safety and driving. While initiatives are being taken for promoting awareness within educational institutions on road safety, there is still a lack of awareness of traffic regulations and signs.

Since there is a paucity of research on health promotions specifically related to aberrant and risky driving in the Kingdom, this paper adds value to educators and policy-makers.

This qualitative research was designed to investigate students' health needs and their views on health promotion in a University. A total of 31 students participated in focus group discussions. Inductive analysis revealed two central themes: student health concerns and health promotion in a University setting. The former included issues associated with adjustment to life at University, health‐related lifestyle behaviours and provision of support services. The key areas highlighted for health promotion were alcohol and drug use, healthy eating and mental health. Participants' views on health promotion centred on the use of campaigns, which were felt to be a proactive and suitable means of targeting students with health messages; however, numerous recommendations to improve their efficacy emerged. Additional interventions to complement rather than replace campaigns were considered appropriate. By identifying the health concerns of students, this research has highlighted the areas on which future health promotion activity should focus and has suggested methods by which it could be delivered.