Farmers Club Charitable Trust award helps extend international agricutural mental health research

Posted 12 May 2025

Ongoing research into mental health provision for agricultural students will be extended to the United States -  thanks to a Farmers Club Charitable Trust award.

The award, which has been given to Harper Adams University’s Professor David Christian Rose, Director of the Centre for Social Science, will allow him to extend work he has been carrying out examining mental health provision in the UK’s specialist universities and colleges to America.

He will be building on work he has been doing with Harper Adams staff and students – such as final year BSc (Hons) Agri-business student Tom York – by talking with Cornell University’s NY FarmNet team.

He said: “I will be talking to staff who have developed courses on mental health for veterinary and agricultural students, and talking to those students, to learn lessons on what works and what could be delivered at Harper - and across the rest of the UK.

“It links to the existing research we are doing with Tom, who is mapping current provision of mental health education in UK agricultural universities and colleges - and finding that it is a little bit patchy.”

Professor Rose’s award is one of seven given to outstanding agricultural educators and funded by The Farmers Club Charitable Trust (FCCT).

Chair of the selection panel, Mr. Tim Jackson, said: “I was delighted to chair the panel and praised the calibre of applications and emphasised the immense benefits the research will bring to the industry.”

Each recipient will embark on a transformative journey, sharing their insights and findings through their teaching as well as on the FCCT’ s social media channels. Final reports and video presentations will be published on the FCCT website, creating a knowledge bank for the wider agricultural community.

Professor Rose added: “We want to try and help co-ordinate efforts across Landex institutions to share knowledge about what works best for mental health education and part of this is learning from abroad, like Cornell. We are also working with Lincoln and Massey Universities in New Zealand and UCD in Ireland on this topic.”

Awards Ambassador and Trust Secretary Lisa Turner added: “In such a fast-moving environment, it is absolutely vital that we learn from others and expand our knowledge and understanding.”

And Farmers Club Trust Chairman Nick Green said: “Educating the next generation to the highest standard cannot be underestimated. By supporting these studies, we equip educators with the latest worldwide innovations and knowledge they can disseminate to future agriculturalists.”

The next round of FCCT awards will open in mid-September. Further details are available at www.tfcct.co.uk