Technology for Mental Health: Reflections on Scope and Future Directions in Institutes of Higher Education in India

College years represent a pivotal phase as students transition into adulthood, a period marked by heightened vulnerability to mental health challenges. Beyond the high prevalence of common mental health issues, a large treatment gap (driven by both supply-side and demand-side factors) exacerbates the overall burden. Furthermore, students in higher education frequently experience psychological distress and subthreshold symptoms that impair well-being and daily functioning. Globally, technology-based mental health solutions have emerged as an important strategy to address unmet needs, with a growing evidence base across populations. Research has increasingly focused on examining digital mental health interventions for college students. Against this backdrop, we examine the challenges within India's large higher education system-which serves approximately 43 million students-and the expanding role of technology in this sector. We explore the potential for leveraging technology-based solutions to enhance student mental health initiatives within higher education institutions, considering relevant policies and guidelines that provide an impetus to these efforts. We reflect upon challenges and opportunities for implementing digital mental health interventions in Indian higher education, and propose strategic actions at institutional and governmental levels. Key considerations include data governance, safety, transparency, positioning of digital initiatives relative to in-person care, safeguards for content quality, provision of interventions at varying intensities, and recommendations for policy, governmental support, and research to optimize the use of technology for student mental health in institutes of higher education in India.