Dr Jess Hill from UQ’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences spoke to Campus Review about new research suggesting dogs could be the solution to boost staff and student mental health.
Animal-assisted education has been incorporated into primary and high schools for a number of years, lead researcher Dr Jess Hill said, but the research is lacking when it comes to the higher education sector.
“There are a lot of additional stresses that do come with starting university studies, and research has shown that it does have a negative impact on students' overall mental wellbeing” Dr Hill said.
“We've only just started preliminary analysis, but it is suggesting that dogs have a positive impact on student wellbeing.”
