Psychological counselling for students in higher education: a systematic review of its effectiveness on mental health and academic functioning

Psychological distress is increasingly prevalent among university student populations and demands for university counselling services have increased over the last decade. The current systematic review was aimed at summarizing the available evidence on the effectiveness of psychological counselling for students in higher education. A systematic search was undertaken in PsycInfo, PubMed and Scopus, resulting in 42 studies identified as eligible. The results provide evidence of the utility of psychological counselling for university students, identifying benefits in terms of global functioning and some symptoms, particularly with reference to depression and anxiety. Importantly, results showed that students who experienced a greater change in psychological functioning over the course of counselling reported greater improvements in academic performance. Improvements in GPAs and academic distress, but not in retention, were also found at post-intervention. Online counselling also proved to be effective, while the data remained inconclusive on whether attending more sessions may lead to more improvement. The methodological quality of the included studies was generally moderate. Finally, research recommendations were discussed.