Mental health, resilience, and academic outcomes among university students: a global scoping review with particular attention to African and Global South contexts

Mental health challenges among university students represent a significant global public health concern, consistently associated with poorer academic outcomes, reduced retention, and increased dropout risk. Although resilience is widely recognised as a protective factor, the evidence base is disproportionately derived from high-income Western contexts, with African and Global South universities markedly underrepresented. This scoping review mapped global literature on relationships among mental health, resilience, and academic outcomes among university students, with particular attention to African and Global South contexts, and identified key gaps requiring future investigation. Following the Arksey and O’Malley framework and reported in accordance with PRISMA-ScR guidelines, six databases (PubMed, PsycINFO, ERIC, Scopus, Web of Science, and AJOL) and Google Scholar were searched for peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025. Studies were eligible if they examined at least two of three target constructs mental health, resilience, and academic outcomes among undergraduate students; studies examining fewer than two constructs, focusing on postgraduate or clinical populations, or lacking sufficient methodological detail were excluded. Formal risk of bias assessment was not conducted, consistent with scoping review methodology. Data were synthesised using descriptive and thematic approaches informed by social-ecological resilience theory and Ubuntu-informed epistemology. Fifty-three studies from 25 countries were included, with sample sizes ranging from 20 to 7,505 (median approximately 389). Psychological distress, particularly depression, consistently predicted poorer academic outcomes. Resilience functioned as a conditional protective factor, with coping style the most modifiable proximal mechanism. The review identified heavy reliance on Western-developed instruments and limited engagement with Ubuntu or other African relational frameworks within the eligible literature, alongside insufficient engagement with structural determinants such as financial stress and food insecurity. Critically, no study simultaneously examined all three constructs within a sub-Saharan African context. The evidence base remains geographically uneven, theoretically fragmented, and methodologically constrained. Key limitations include the English-language search strategy, reliance on peer-reviewed literature only, and absence of formal quality appraisal. Longitudinal, culturally grounded, and structurally informed research is urgently needed in African and Global South higher education, alongside Ubuntu-informed instrument development. These findings are already informing an ongoing empirical study at UKZN where instruments have been contextually adapted. This review received no funding. Open Science Framework: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/QBU79 .