Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) is setting a powerful precedent, proving that academic excellence and holistic wellbeing are not competing priorities, but deeply interconnected ones.
Since the launch of the Healthy University Roadmap in August 2025, the UBD campus has undergone a meaningful transformation. What began as a structured initiative has evolved into a living, breathing culture of care, one where staff and students alike are empowered to prioritise their physical, mental, and environmental health. Educational talks, awareness campaigns, and wellness sessions have not only added richness to campus life but have begun to shift how the entire UBD community understands wellbeing: not as a benefit, but as a foundation.
The impact of this shift is already tangible. Counselling services, once available exclusively to students, have been extended to staff. This acknowledges that a truly healthy university cannot leave half of its community behind. The training of Psychological First Aid (PFA) Responders and RISE Peer Counsellors has created a network of informed, compassionate support within the campus itself, reducing barriers to seeking help and fostering a culture where mental health is no longer a silent struggle.
The significance of UBD’s approach has not gone unnoticed on the regional stage. At the recent Healthy University Rating System (HURS) Workshop, Executive Director of the ASEAN Universities Network Health Promotion Network (AUN-HPN) Associate Professor Dr Thunwadee Suksaroj commended UBD for being the first university she had encountered with a dedicated health promotion roadmap. Her assessment was unambiguous: UBD’s model has the potential to serve as a benchmark not only for institutions across Brunei Darussalam, but across the region. Brunei Darussalam’s existing legislative and policy frameworks, she noted, provide the accountability and clarity of purpose that make UBD’s vision both credible and replicable.
This regional recognition reflects something deeper, a realisation that UBD is not simply organising wellness events but building systemic change. Chief Programme and Project Aide to the ASEAN University Network (AUN) Achavadee Wiroonpetch expressed, “It starts with us, and extends outwards to the community.” In under a year, UBD has already demonstrated that institutional commitment to health can yield visible and measurable results.
Crucially, UBD’s approach is designed for longevity. With sustainability, culture-building, and long-term wellbeing outcomes at its core, the Healthy University initiative treats health not as a standalone service, but as a shared institutional value woven into governance, research, global engagement, and academic life. Steering committees, relevant offices, faculties, and student bodies work in concert to ensure that every programme aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Wawasan Brunei 2035, anchoring campus wellbeing within the nation’s broader vision for the future.
The road ahead is one of integration and growth. UniHEALTH continues to update policies and guidelines, strengthen existing frameworks, and identify new areas for improvement. UniHEALTH Deputy Director Dr Deeni Rudita Idris envisions a fully integrated Healthy University culture that draws in departments such as the Student Affairs Section and incorporates the religious perspective, enabling the UBD community to be not just academically accomplished, but genuinely healthy and happy.
At its heart, UBD’s Healthy University initiative is a statement of values: that the measure of a great university is not only the knowledge it imparts, but the people it shapes and the wellbeing it sustains.