The Healthy Relationships Project: A Toolkit for a Successful Sexual Health Campaign for International Students was initiated in response to an increase in the number of female international students seeking medical advice due to unwanted pregnancies.

We had also had some cases of international students who reported feeling under pressure to enter into sexual relationships whilst studying in the UK and we wanted to address this issue as well.

These two facts indicated that newly arrived international students may need additional help to improve their knowledge about sexual heath and sexual consent.

The project was designed to:

• Increase international students’ sexual health knowledge and improve their understanding of sexual consent
• Improve awareness of support services available and encourage students to seek advice and support
• Equip international students with increased confidence to navigate sexual consent and develop healthy relationships
• develop advice and materials which are sensitive to the different cultural and religious backgrounds of international students, in order to reduce any feelings of shame, embarrassment and/or fear students might feel when seeking out advice and information

Outcomes

As part of the project implementation, we worked with a group of international student health facilitators to create:

• Information leaflets on health services in the UK including information about access to sexual health services in Sheffield. These are now distributed during International student orientation and the medical registration.
• 20-minute information sessions about access to healthcare and sexual health services in the UK delivered by International Student Health Facilitators during Orientation programme.
• A two-hour session focusing on healthy relationships and sexual health to be delivered by a staff member and a student health facilitator.
• An online tutorial about sexual health and contraception which will be provided to all international students via a Blackboard organisational site

The project and its approaches have been documented in a toolkit for other universities and colleges to use if they wish to deliver similar services. This includes:

• preliminary student questionnaire (Translation in Mandarin also provided)
• job description and person specification for International student health facilitator
• detailed training session for the international student health facilitators
• detailed session plan for a two-hour session on Healthy Relationships (which includes information and exercises focusing on personal communication skills, sexual consent and sexual health)
• session evaluation form
• print-ready information leaflet on Health Services in the UK (this will require minor editing to provide information about local sexual health services)
• Articulate Storyline online tutorial which can be edited and used by other HEIs

The toolkit and any related materials are available for download from this site