Dear UP student, 

My name is Dr Sonja Mostert. I am a research psychologist and lecturer at the University of Pretoria. Together with the Student Counselling Unit (SCU) I am doing research about how and why students used the UP mental health chatbot, SCU-B between March 2020—June 2022. Your participation will help us to improve the chatbot and assess our students’ needs.

You will be requested to participate in a virtual or in-person interview. It will take about 30-40 minutes. ALL INFORMATION IS CONFIDENTIAL. No identifying information will be linked to the data and pseudonyms will be used during transcriptions. Participation in this study is voluntary and should you choose to withdraw from the study there will be no negative consequences or any implications to your use of the chatbot or any additional student counselling services. All data will be removed should you choose to withdraw from the study.

Please contact me if you wish to share your experiences with using the chatbot [email protected] / Tel (012) 4204904.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Sonja Mostert