Summer School

About the U21 Health Sciences Group Summer School

The U21 HSG Summer School is an annual two-week interdisciplinary course for undergraduate U21 Health Sciences Students that offers the unique opportunity of face-to-face learning and field trips located at a U21 HSG member university.

The course provides UG students with the valuable experience of team-based learning opportunities that include workshops, presentations, lectures, self-directed learning and field trips on a theme of particular relevance to the Health Sciences.   

About the theme of the 2025 Summer School:

Promoting mental health and wellbeing is essential to the world’s overall health. Considering that our population is aging, there is a need to strengthen health professionals’ abilities to work with older people; tailoring their approach to address this group’s needs.

While mental wellbeing encompasses life satisfaction, optimism, self-esteem, having a purpose and a sense of belonging and support, older people often experience low levels of satisfaction and wellbeing, experiencing loneliness, social isolation, and mental health problems. Improving their wellbeing requires an interdisciplinary and complex approach to care. Healthcare students are called on to be critical and creative thinkers, explore alternatives, and take action to promote older people’s wellbeing.

The 2025 Summer School will offer to undergraduate students from all health-related careers an interdisciplinary, dialogical and critical approach to promoting mental health amongst an aging population, connecting multiple disciplines such as global health, health policy, sociology, anthropology and the health sciences to enhance the students’ experiences. This is consistent with the principles of U21, seeking to address key challenges of our time by sharing best practices and disseminating knowledge to enrich the quality of higher education. In doing so, it supports students’ development as global citizens and as future leaders.