Britain's first university well-being tsar hands out 'happy badges' to students

Students are becoming more anxious as their exams approach. To make exam season a happy one, Britain’s university ‘happiness tsar’ will hand out ‘happy badges’ to anxious students.

University of Buckingham has declared that the system will be led by Cherry Coombe. The role assigned to her is to “help improve the working and learning environment” by promoting mental well-being of students.

So far, the badges have been handed out to all those students that took part in the local parade which was held through Buckingham. Badges are also given to staff members who helped ‘improve the work environment”.

The shape of the badges is like all traditional badges, but they have the word “happiness” written over them, in gold.

The parade was set up by the students and was themes around the BBC drama ‘Doctor Foster’. Students were dressed in scrubs. The badges had been awarded to the students to ‘formalize the notion of being successful as a resilient person’, said Ms. Coombe.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Ms. Coombe said, “We validate academic success. But we very rarely like to acknowledge optimism and resilience. My aim is that absolutely everyone in the university has a happiness badge.”

To become the first ‘positive university’ of UK, Buckingham has also bought two black cockapoo dogs. Students many stroke the dogs as it is said to relieve stress. Students will also be able to take the dogs for a walk during times of overwhelming exam pressure.

Creative writing lecturers, Ms. Coombe said, “We’re focused on general well-being and on staying healthy, and on not falling over the waterfall. There are plenty of services that help you when you’re at the bottom of the waterfall. The idea is to stay buoyant and keep surfing the wave.”