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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Higher Education
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1443937

The Okanagan Charter to Improve Wellbeing in Higher Education: Shifting the Paradigm

Provisionally accepted
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    There is a growing trend among US universities and colleges to become Health Promoting Universities (HPUs) and adopt the Okanagan Charter. This trend is based on the aspirations of these universities and colleges to infuse health into everyday operations and improve the wellbeing of people, places and the planet. As university and colleges adopt the Okanagan Charter there is little guidance on how to think about wellbeing and address the social and planet determinants of health on a university campus. In addition, there is a need to understand the strategies of HPUs and how they differ compared to current activities of schools or programs of public health and medical centers already focused on improving health and wellness. HPUs will be a driving force for campus public health and improvements in wellbeing as additional higher education institutions move in this direction.

    Keywords: Health promoting university, Student health, Okanagan Charter, wellbeing, campus health, systems and settings approach, people place and planet

    Received: 07 Aug 2024; Accepted: 31 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ginter, Kennedy, Erwin and Reed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wendy Reed, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.