Inaugural Lecture- Professor Nick Rowe

Students not Service Users: reflections on the influences, history, and future of Converge

Converge offers university-based educational opportunities to local people who experience mental ill health. It is animated by 3 key principles: people come as students not ‘services users’, we provide education not therapy, and university students are involved as participants, tutors and in the support of others. Nick will trace the development of the project identifying some of the personal, social and cultural changes that have made it possible. As a project of its time; what can its success tell us about the significant changes taking place in higher education and mental health provision? What have we learned that will shape its future development?