To celebrate University Mental Health Day, the Faculty of Science is attempting to make it into the Guinness World Records.

All staff and students are invited to help break the world record for the most people to take an online mental health lesson in 24 hours. The current record is 1,622 and we’re looking for as many supporters as possible, so please do get involved and encourage students to do the same.

This official Guinness World Records attempt will be overseen by two independent witnesses and will take place on Thursday 4 March, which is University Mental Health Day (UMHD). UMHD is a national day to make mental health a university-wide priority, creating ongoing change.

How to take part

To take part, all you need to do is complete an online lesson between 12pm GMT 4 March and 12pm GMT 5 March. The lesson lasts approximately 45 minutes and can be taken at any point during this 24-hour period.

The lesson will be made live at the link below from 12pm (GMT) on Thursday 4 March. An active Moodle account and a university username and password are required to access the lesson.

Take the course

This record attempt is also open to staff and students at the University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus and the University of Nottingham Malaysia.

Professor Sarah Sharples, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and People, said: “I am delighted to see our colleagues and students finding increasingly creative ways to raise awareness of mental health. This world record attempt underscores our commitment to mental health at the University of Nottingham. Over the past year we have made significant investments in our mental health services and it is my hope that this initiative will help to highlight those resources. I’ll certainly be participating in the world record attempt, and welcome the opportunity to learn more about what we can all do to support our mental health.”

Jonathan Lamley, Head of Operations in the School of Pharmacy, said: “We wanted to do something that would demonstrate and celebrate our commitment to the importance of mental health. This is something fun that everyone can get involved in, but the training also has the tangible impact of increasing our community’s knowledge and awareness of mental health issues, helping us all to look after ourselves and each other.”

This world record attempt is just part of our events for University Mental Health Day. The university also offers mental health support for both staff and students and recently commissioned Togetherall, a digital mental health service for staff and students.