We have designed the UniVRse virtual reality (VR) programme from scratch.
The UniVRse programme was co-produced by our team of researchers, clinicians, VR programmers and, most importantly, university students who have experience of feeling unconfident at university.
Our student collaborators have helped us to identify what situations at university they feel the least confident in, and why those situations cause them anxiety. We have created virtual versions of these situations that are graded in line with cognitive behaviour techniques to steadily increase the number of anxiety-related triggers present. This graded approach will allow students to tackle their fears in small and gradual steps.
Each session of the UniVRse programme starts with a welcome from a virtual mentor called Sam. Sam will ask you to choose one of four university-based scenarios to work through, starting at level 1 which contains the least number of anxiety-related triggers, to level 5 which has the most. At the end of the session, Sam will check in with you and have a debrief.