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UoB introduces new unit in happiness which could count towards your degree

Exercises include sleeping more and random acts of kindness


Bristol University has introduced a new unit in happiness, which could count towards your degree.

This happiness course — which is open to all students — will amount to 20 out of the total 120 credit points needed for a degree.

The new unit follows the University's effort to improve their student well-being and pastoral care system.

Orchestrated by psychologist Professor Bruce Hood, the course will run over a 12 week period and aims to change the lives of its participants.

The University's confidence in the programme comes after a successful pilot course, which did not count towards credit points, but saw 400 students sign up.

However, the Science of Happiness should not be taken as an easy option. Professor Hood told the Independent that the course instructors are "anticipating hundreds of students taking it, right across the spectrum" and that students have "really got to put in the effort and engage".

Students will participate in a 1 hour lecture each week and attend "happiness hub" meetings.

People will assess the happiness exercises they have been assigned to try for the week. These include sleeping more, meditation, savouring enjoyment and random acts of kindness.

The lectures will cover topics such as whether happiness is genetic, the role of happiness in culture and how the mind can distort happiness.

The idea for the course was inspired by the positive response from Yale University's Psychology and the Good Life classes.

The course was attended by 1 in 4 students and by tens of thousands online, and has since been known to change peoples outlook on happiness and how to achieve it.