Wellbeing Community

A group of researchers from across the University are working on a number of projects to monitor and evaluate the Wellbeing Community and the ‘Three Strands’ of its remit.

One on-going project is looking at how to encourage greater stair use at Waterside. Recently, a report was published at how one Covid measure installed at the University – a one-way walking system and signage reminding people to only use the lift one-at-a-time and to use stairs instead – helped to significantly increase stair usage.

Discussions are now under-way to develop this into a permanent, stair use encouragement policy, for those who are able to use stairs.

You can view more about our research at UON on our Centre for Health Sciences and Service page and our Centre for Physical Activity and Life Sciences page.

The University is committed to ensuring good mental health for our students, staff, and the wider community. We aim to embrace opportunities to have open discussions about mental health, seek opportunities for prevention and early intervention and ensure access to appropriate and effective support services in collaboration with local and national health care providers.

This includes Mental Health First Aid. This training gives people the skills, knowledge, and confidence to recognise the signs and symptoms of common mental health issues and effectively guide a person towards the right support, be that self-help, an employee assistance programme, or professional services.

Since 2017, our MHFA team has been rolling out this training to students and staff members and this will continue apace, as will MHFA training for members of the community or local business. Training sessions are available to book and there’s more information on our website.

For our students this is in addition to the wide range of emotional and mental health support services and materials run by our dedicated Counselling team and events such as the annual University Mental Health Day.

In 2022, our Mental Health and Counselling service celebrated its 25th birthday. Northampton’s was the first dedicated mental health service within a UK university. There’s more about how this service has developed in our news story.

Waterside Campus opened in September 2018, built with the following principles in mind:

• Open campus for the community
• Sensitive to its surroundings;
• Accessible, with cycle routes linking the town centre and Delapré Park
• Designed to promote sustainable travel
• Sustainable low carbon campus
• Supporting a digitally transformed University.

As we move further into the 2021/2022 academic year, one focus is to accommodate more flexible working for staff and that our social spaces encourage interaction and a healthy culture.

We are also set to spearhead the Northampton ‘Activity Quarter’ concept, which will see our campus at the heart of a cluster of areas in the town that will promote physical activity.

We have also made improvements to our external spaces. Our Memorial Garden – which is open to the public – is located between the River Nene bridges on Nunn Mills Road near Beckett’s Park. It’s split into a communal reflective area with a circle of benches facing onto a central area of planting, and a wider arrangement of benches for more solitary contemplation.

The University also has a number of spaces for events, large and small that can be hired for informal meeting rooms or large-scale business conferences.

Only an hour away from London and Birmingham, our recently built £330m vibrant facilities have everything you need, including an on-site hotel, restaurant and catering, indoor and outdoor spaces, state-of-the-art audio-visual and support from our dedicated team.

Explore Our Campus

Sport is a rapidly growing and exciting area of development for us at the University. We aim to provide sporting services for our students, members of staff, and the wider community, striving to be the heart of sporting activity in Northampton.

For students, with a large number of student-led sports clubs on offer, you’ll be able to meet new people, socialise and compete with the added benefit of completely free membership (through our Students Union).

Students can also benefit from the Northampton Energy Elite Scholarship. This offers 15 students from any UON undergraduate or postgraduate course with a higher level of sporting ability a support network to balance the demands of performance sport with academic study. Support includes a strength and conditioning programme, nutrition workshops, and media training.

For staff and members of the community, they – like our students – can use the range of free outdoor sports and activity kit we have on offer at Waterside such as table tennis, table football, and an outdoor gym area. An outdoor pool table is on its way and also on the horizon is a park run.

Members of the public can also book some of our sport facilities, including the outdoor pitches and door sports dome.

An outdoor fitness circuit called the ‘Trim Trail’ has been installed at Waterside campus as part of our mission to get staff, students and members of the public more physically active. It includes 14 pieces of fitness equipment of the 1.1-mile course around the perimeter of campus.

This work forms part of our Active Campus project aimed at creating a happier, healthier, and more active community of staff and students at the University of Northampton.

In April 2022, the University hired its first Physical Activity Activator for staff. Ana Mazuran works with UON employees to develop physical activity classes for them and help them get the most out of working in and around an Active Campus.

Sport at UON