Naomi Adedokun investigates the spate of student suicides at UK Universities.
When you go to university, you get a lot of advice about where to live, what societies to join, how to budget properly.
But no one really tells you what to do when you become so depressed that you can’t even leave your room.
This was my experience at Bristol University. I had a great time, but I also struggled a lot, like many others.
In the 2016-17 academic year, 95 students around the UK died by suicide. That’s one every four days.
And in 18 months overlapping that period, 11 students at Bristol died.
We were all asking the same thing: How could this happen here? Why did it happen?
I left Bristol in 2018, but I still had questions. Questions about what a university can do to solve a mental health crisis.
“I wouldn’t wish it upon any parent, it’s the worst thing that can happen to you, it’s the flowers on the side of the road. The sort of thing that happens to other people. And it’s a horrible experience to go through a last lunch and not know that actually you won’t see that person again and look back on it and wish that you’d done things differently.”
James Murray, Father of Ben Murray
This is James Murray. His son, Ben, was a first-year English student at Bristol. He took his own life last year.
“We know that there are 3 things that contribute towards people going into crisis: academic or financial pressure, bereavement and trauma. And Ben had all three.”
“The adage is a problem shared, a problem halved, but it’s very difficult for people, particularly young males, to admit that they’re vulnerable.”
James pointed to non-disclosure as one of the biggest hurdles.
And he’s right – nationwide two out of three suicides happen without previous contact with mental health services.
But when I researched further, I found that the number of students disclosing a mental health condition increased from around 24,000 to over 57,000 in 5 years.
Disclosing Mental Health
“What we have is a generation of people who are talking about it, who are really open, who are coming to university and actually now openly saying I need some support.”
Paul Osbiston, Suicide Prevention Trainer
So if the demand is there and visible, what’s the problem?
Paul said this:
“If somebody reaches out for support, being told that you can get an appointment in 6 weeks.
Now again this is no reflection on staff, it is a reflection on funding. You need that funding within the NHS, within universities, for the student support services.
That has to be in place. You’re dealing with 15000 young people that have to be looked after.”
For Bristol, in particular, the funding issue stuck out. In response to the outcry, the University had pledged £1 million to improve support services.
But when you look into the expenditure at the end of the 2017-18 academic year, they only spent £660,000 on the wellbeing service.
That’s almost 30% under budget.
The University responded that this was a matter of taking time to establish a large and complex service.
But whilst they take that time, people continue to struggle. I went back to Bristol to speak to a student still there.
“It’s around exam period right now, and university’s just full of zombies working in the library, 9 till 9 at night, sometime you see people in there ’till 4am. That’s the reason why referrals to counselling going up around this time because of the extreme pressure around exams.”
Ruth Day, Bristol University 2nd Year Student
I asked Ruth what changes she thought the University should be making.
“Generally put more funding in counselling, especially around exam period because more people are going to try and get counselling, the waiting list is going to get longer and longer, and then when people need urgent support, they don’t get it urgently, and then it’ll come to the time that they get their counselling, and they’re either like so bad the counselling isn’t right for them or their depressive episode isn’t as bad so they’re like oh I’m fine I don’t need help right now.”
Suspending Students
Ruth isn’t just a current student at the university, they’re well acquainted with the student support services.
To talk further, we walked from Wills Memorial to Goldney Hall, Ruth’s first year accommodation.
“I’d come to university on the way out of a severe depressive episode, having just been diagnose with a personality disorder. My life was all over the place. It just kept getting worse and worse to the point where I felt really isolated. I didn’t know where I was, what I was doing. And it kind of got so low that I did attempt suicide in my room about 3 weeks into university. I just kind of went to bed, hoped I didn’t wake up. Did wake up, was kind of like oh no what did I do? I went to see my student support adviser and told her what had happened the night before. Rang an ambulance, a senior resident took me to hospital, I was medically cleared, all of that.”
Ruth ended up in hospital again after that, not for an attempt, but because she’d felt unsafe.
When she returned from hospital the second time, it was to shocking news.
“I get sort of pulled into my warden’s office, and handed this letter basically saying we’ve suspended you from the uni temporarily, you have to go home that very day, your room will be shut.
So basically that very day, my dad had to drive up from London, we had to pack quite a lot of my stuff away and go back home.
I literally had no idea. They didn’t go through the informal procedure that they said they were going to go through.
Literally on 2 weeks ago did I know why I was suspended, did I know how I got suspended, did I really know what was going on.
I was just left there with this letter, frantically reading through the fitness to study policy, every day I’d wake up, read through the policy, try and understand why I’d been suspended, and I still didn’t know.”
The policy Ruth is talking about is used when a student’s fitness to study is a cause for concern.
It’s supposed to be a last resort after staff have raised the issue with the student themselves.
But this didn’t happen for Ruth, and it didn’t happen for Ben.
“I shouldn’t be in a position where I’m meeting with my son for what becomes our last lunch without knowing what his circumstances are, given that they were so extreme.
He was 4 days away from being removed from university halls of residence, he’d already been dismissed or deemed withdrawn from the uni 2 months earlier.
I’m not clear on how the process operated or who made the decision to dismiss him and why they made that decision, but what I do know they didn’t make it with reference to his anxiety and I don’t think it’s right that we should dismiss students from university who have already they’re suffering from anxiety.
That’s only going to compound things.
He’d told his senior tutor, that was known and understand, but for some reason it didn’t make it into any major decisions.”
Following the inquest into Ben’s death, the University introduced a new process in which students who are about to be withdrawn meet with both academic and wellbeing staff to explain the decision.
“You can’t fire somebody without meeting them face to face. You have to explain to them the reasons why we’re looking at your dismissal.”
Ruth agreed:
“Even that is more helpful than just being slapped with a letter. I was lucky in the sense that my warden sat down with me and when I went to pick up my room, I wasn’t left alone because if I was left alone, I’m not gonna lie, I probably would have done something.
I don’t really know. But if you receive that when you’re alone… it’s just such a damaging thing to receive and if you don’t have proper support around you, it could sort of break you or whatever.”
When James went to Ben’s accommodation, he found the letter dismissing him from the university. Unopened.
What Have We Learned?
The University provided a statement repeating that the policy was only enacted as a last resort.
The thing is: Bristol isn’t unique here, other universities have experienced similar tragedies with similar policies.
But the attention that’s now on Bristol is helping to bring these answers to light. Answers of what a university can do to solve the crisis.
“Mental health is a team sport, and I think that in that team sport, goals are scored by giving somebody hope. You’re having a bad time now, it’ll pass. I think it’s incumbent upon all of us to look for the signs, encourage disclosure and try and score a goal by giving someone hope.”
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HeadlineCity Investigates: What Can a University Do to Solve a Mental Health Crisis?
Short HeadlineCity Investigates: Solving Student Suicides in Universities
Standfirst Investigating the spate of student suicides at UK Universities.
Naomi Adedokun investigates the spate of student suicides at UK Universities.
When you go to university, you get a lot of advice about where to live, what societies to join, how to budget properly.
But no one really tells you what to do when you become so depressed that you can’t even leave your room.
This was my experience at Bristol University. I had a great time, but I also struggled a lot, like many others.
In the 2016-17 academic year, 95 students around the UK died by suicide. That’s one every four days.
And in 18 months overlapping that period, 11 students at Bristol died.
We were all asking the same thing: How could this happen here? Why did it happen?
I left Bristol in 2018, but I still had questions. Questions about what a university can do to solve a mental health crisis.
“I wouldn’t wish it upon any parent, it’s the worst thing that can happen to you, it’s the flowers on the side of the road. The sort of thing that happens to other people. And it’s a horrible experience to go through a last lunch and not know that actually you won’t see that person again and look back on it and wish that you’d done things differently.”
James Murray, Father of Ben Murray
This is James Murray. His son, Ben, was a first-year English student at Bristol. He took his own life last year.
“We know that there are 3 things that contribute towards people going into crisis: academic or financial pressure, bereavement and trauma. And Ben had all three.”
“The adage is a problem shared, a problem halved, but it’s very difficult for people, particularly young males, to admit that they’re vulnerable.”
James pointed to non-disclosure as one of the biggest hurdles.
And he’s right – nationwide two out of three suicides happen without previous contact with mental health services.
But when I researched further, I found that the number of students disclosing a mental health condition increased from around 24,000 to over 57,000 in 5 years.
Disclosing Mental Health
“What we have is a generation of people who are talking about it, who are really open, who are coming to university and actually now openly saying I need some support.”
Paul Osbiston, Suicide Prevention Trainer
So if the demand is there and visible, what’s the problem?
Paul said this:
“If somebody reaches out for support, being told that you can get an appointment in 6 weeks.
Now again this is no reflection on staff, it is a reflection on funding. You need that funding within the NHS, within universities, for the student support services.
That has to be in place. You’re dealing with 15000 young people that have to be looked after.”
For Bristol, in particular, the funding issue stuck out. In response to the outcry, the University had pledged £1 million to improve support services.
But when you look into the expenditure at the end of the 2017-18 academic year, they only spent £660,000 on the wellbeing service.
That’s almost 30% under budget.
The University responded that this was a matter of taking time to establish a large and complex service.
But whilst they take that time, people continue to struggle. I went back to Bristol to speak to a student still there.
“It’s around exam period right now, and university’s just full of zombies working in the library, 9 till 9 at night, sometime you see people in there ’till 4am. That’s the reason why referrals to counselling going up around this time because of the extreme pressure around exams.”
Ruth Day, Bristol University 2nd Year Student
I asked Ruth what changes she thought the University should be making.
“Generally put more funding in counselling, especially around exam period because more people are going to try and get counselling, the waiting list is going to get longer and longer, and then when people need urgent support, they don’t get it urgently, and then it’ll come to the time that they get their counselling, and they’re either like so bad the counselling isn’t right for them or their depressive episode isn’t as bad so they’re like oh I’m fine I don’t need help right now.”
Suspending Students
Ruth isn’t just a current student at the university, they’re well acquainted with the student support services.
To talk further, we walked from Wills Memorial to Goldney Hall, Ruth’s first year accommodation.
“I’d come to university on the way out of a severe depressive episode, having just been diagnose with a personality disorder. My life was all over the place. It just kept getting worse and worse to the point where I felt really isolated. I didn’t know where I was, what I was doing. And it kind of got so low that I did attempt suicide in my room about 3 weeks into university. I just kind of went to bed, hoped I didn’t wake up. Did wake up, was kind of like oh no what did I do? I went to see my student support adviser and told her what had happened the night before. Rang an ambulance, a senior resident took me to hospital, I was medically cleared, all of that.”
Ruth ended up in hospital again after that, not for an attempt, but because she’d felt unsafe.
When she returned from hospital the second time, it was to shocking news.
“I get sort of pulled into my warden’s office, and handed this letter basically saying we’ve suspended you from the uni temporarily, you have to go home that very day, your room will be shut.
So basically that very day, my dad had to drive up from London, we had to pack quite a lot of my stuff away and go back home.
I literally had no idea. They didn’t go through the informal procedure that they said they were going to go through.
Literally on 2 weeks ago did I know why I was suspended, did I know how I got suspended, did I really know what was going on.
I was just left there with this letter, frantically reading through the fitness to study policy, every day I’d wake up, read through the policy, try and understand why I’d been suspended, and I still didn’t know.”
The policy Ruth is talking about is used when a student’s fitness to study is a cause for concern.
It’s supposed to be a last resort after staff have raised the issue with the student themselves.
But this didn’t happen for Ruth, and it didn’t happen for Ben.
“I shouldn’t be in a position where I’m meeting with my son for what becomes our last lunch without knowing what his circumstances are, given that they were so extreme.
He was 4 days away from being removed from university halls of residence, he’d already been dismissed or deemed withdrawn from the uni 2 months earlier.
I’m not clear on how the process operated or who made the decision to dismiss him and why they made that decision, but what I do know they didn’t make it with reference to his anxiety and I don’t think it’s right that we should dismiss students from university who have already they’re suffering from anxiety.
That’s only going to compound things.
He’d told his senior tutor, that was known and understand, but for some reason it didn’t make it into any major decisions.”
Following the inquest into Ben’s death, the University introduced a new process in which students who are about to be withdrawn meet with both academic and wellbeing staff to explain the decision.
“You can’t fire somebody without meeting them face to face. You have to explain to them the reasons why we’re looking at your dismissal.”
Ruth agreed:
“Even that is more helpful than just being slapped with a letter. I was lucky in the sense that my warden sat down with me and when I went to pick up my room, I wasn’t left alone because if I was left alone, I’m not gonna lie, I probably would have done something.
I don’t really know. But if you receive that when you’re alone… it’s just such a damaging thing to receive and if you don’t have proper support around you, it could sort of break you or whatever.”
When James went to Ben’s accommodation, he found the letter dismissing him from the university. Unopened.
What Have We Learned?
The University provided a statement repeating that the policy was only enacted as a last resort.
The thing is: Bristol isn’t unique here, other universities have experienced similar tragedies with similar policies.
But the attention that’s now on Bristol is helping to bring these answers to light. Answers of what a university can do to solve the crisis.
“Mental health is a team sport, and I think that in that team sport, goals are scored by giving somebody hope. You’re having a bad time now, it’ll pass. I think it’s incumbent upon all of us to look for the signs, encourage disclosure and try and score a goal by giving someone hope.”
