Your Stories.

Submitted October, 2024

Ceara attempted to take her life in February in her halls of residence. She was put in a taxi to A&E. No parental contact was attempted by the University. It wasn't deemed a serious accident. After her death in May we asked them about their understanding about Duty of Care and their response was confused and disjointed at best. This is because non existed. 
To this day, 6 years later, I believe my daughter would still be with me had there been a Duty of Care in place and her attempt to take her life in February would have resulted in positive action instead of no action at all.

Submitted October, 2024

My 21 year old sister enrolled at UWE in September 2021 and when she applied to UWE she made them aware of her pre-existing mental health issues. She stayed a couple of weeks during which she came came home a few times due to feeling unsettled and due to bullying she was experiencing at her student halls, issues which she made the university aware of. Soon after, our father had to drive from our hometown to pick her up in the middle of the night when she had a panic attack. Her boyfriend had called us to say she called him and could barely speak, so our dad called campus security who said they would check her room and call back. 20 minutes later our dad called back as we had heard nothing from them, but security said they were attending to a fire alarm on campus and would call back soon. Half an hour later our dad called again, but was told that security could not call back to us because he was not on the list of contacts, and therefore couldn’t speak to him without her permission. Our dad drove more than two hours at 1am to check if she was okay, and after having set off a student support service staff member called to say she was unwell, could we come urgently. At 2:30am she text us “are you coming?” Our dad arrived around 3am. On arrival I found her alone in her room highly distressed and in a state of panic, with no staff present. Two students were outside but obviously had no idea what to do. After trying to comfort her, our dad packed up all her belongings and drove her home. She was not offered any mental health support during her time at UWE, and we were told this was because “she didn't complete and return the questionnaire.” A year after, she ended her life. We found out about this lack of support at the meeting we had with UWE after she passed away. UWE compiled a report and we met and discussed this with them in a meeting held on Feb 2023. The report was insulting, and at length made excuses to deflect any responsibility from the university for her struggles. As a family we didn't agree with some of their findings and statements in their report and we were extremely disappointed with their response to her passing.

Submitted June, 2024

When I studied at Birmingham University some years ago there was so little support available to students that it frightened me - largely because I was one of the ones who needed support. I was very anxious and developed an eating disorder.

The problem was systemic. There was simply very little in place to help students. The only professional mental health support was via the counselling service, and while other services were available, they involved well meaning but at-best hastily trained amateurs such as student volunteers on a helpline and the few tutors who lived alongside students in halls. Personal tutors made no effort to look out for students' welfare and there was no follow up if students didn't attend lectures or classes. The one tutor I approached - very reticently given they were a stranger and someone who might be marking my assignments - about my anxiety and concerns about the suitability of my course referred me to the counselling service and that was the end of that.

The departments I studied in made little attempt to help students make connections - and one actually made it more difficult. As one of the other commenters has mentioned, for arts students this was a very isolating experience. I had little to do for most of the week, since I didn't enjoy many of my modules and didn't see the need to spend time in the library reading about them. I simply sat on my own in various bleak locations or wandered around among thousands of strangers. I wasn't aware of any study skills support that might have helped me address the problems I had with my course. When I overdosed I assumed it would be the cleaner who found me. I don't know who it was in the end. I overcome my eating disorder in my third year - largely by myself. That will always be the greatest achievement of my time at uni, along with the fact that I got through it.

Submitted June, 2024

On my final placement at a psychiatric hospital I lost a colleague to suicide. I was the last person they spoke to at work before they died the following day, and during that evening they shared a lot of their personal struggles. This has affected me really deeply. I was pressured to continue working and a request to do a split placement was denied; I wasn’t allowed to take time off either, I was told I’d have to fail and redo a whole year, which was distressing as I’d just faced a massive loss. Every day that I came to work I had to go to the exact place where I’d last seen this person alive shortly before they died. I watched people get in and out of her chair, on and off sick, people struggling with their mental health - just like she did, while also going out to see patients with thoughts of ending their own life. When the placement ended, I lost my mind. The stress took a massive toll and I was hospitalised as I lost touch with reality, feeling massively frightened that I or anyone around me could die very suddenly. I’m lucky in that making a complaint, the university has a clear policy stating they have a duty of care towards healthcare students on placement, but they certainly didn’t act that way in the many months I was telling them how much I was struggling. I’m determined to take my complaint further to the ombudsman to remind universities that they have a duty of care to their healthcare students, because the mistreatment we face is so widespread it’s unacceptable. This has affected my health and my life in the most devastating way, and I want to try and stop this from happening to other students in the future.

Submitted April, 2024

I contacted the university and I was told that as he was over 18 I had no rights and he would have to ask for support himself I faced a slammed door this university is an absolute disgrace at the end of the day out children are our children I stood by mine told him to get out he came home and was cared for he has since gone on to receive a first class honours degree at home in a secure environment something Sheffield Hallam failed on and has failed too many students. If I ever dare mention that place to my son a darkness comes over him - so I don’t the societies need addressing my son as a rugby player joined the rugby team his initiation was to down a bottle of spirit on the bus and bring a bin bag - he was scared he loved the sport but his father is an alcoholic for him to have to do that without being ridiculed was a daunting fact we talked and I said go for red port replace it with blackcurrant juice but leave a little or port so it smells so they don’t catch you out rub the cork in the port and the top of the bottle so smells of port this was the anxiety my son went through there.

It cost him a year of tuition fees and rent and nearly his life this university needs to be held accountable.

Submitted February, 2024

I started at Bristol last year, I was so excited and so proud that I’d managed to get into such a ‘good’ uni. However I was put in an accomodation very off campus and very quickly felt very isolated. Additionally my course was only 6 hours a week which is such a short amount of time and left me with nothing to do, and made me feel even more isolated. I asked for help from the uni multiple times, I requested to move accommodation around 10 times, and nobody did anything to help me out of my situation and I was stuck where I was. It felt like the uni were just ignoring my problems and didn’t care at all, and it got so bad that by Christmas I had to drop out for my own mental health. I did not feel comfortable or safe going to a university that had no care whatsoever for my wellbeing.

Submitted February, 2024

In my first year of university I struggled a lot with my mental health and as a result was sectioned under the mental health act. I was given no support with this and received low marks as a result of missing lectures etc. in my assignments. I was forced to drop out and retake the year due to given no help. I then went back to university as I knew I could do better and found myself pregnant while retaking my second first year.

As a single parent and disabled student, I was given no support from my university to assist me with accommodation and therefore had to find a private landlord and live in a single room with a cot bed for my daughter . The only thing the uni said they could do was to offer me a 3 bed property for a well over the odds price of over £1200 a month which was completely unaffordable. As a result I was significantly disadvantaged from my peers and there was no support for me as a single student parent except for my DSA funding where I received a mentor. Without this I’m not sure I would have passed.

Submitted February, 2024

I am 90 years old. I was at Somerville college 1952 to 1955. The dons meant well but had no idea of how to lend any kind of help to their students which was not academic. A friend of mine only just survived the pressure and suffered a lot through anxiety about her academic performance success with men etc. It is shocking that nothing has changed. Wake up teachers and lend your students the support you could so easily supply.

Submitted January, 2024

The college withdrew autism support, and their conduct and the original support was greatly criticised by experts. Not satisfied with a pyrrhic defence in court, the college sought to cause as much strain as possible, continuing what one expert described as a plan to break me after I had the courage to complain. I was told this was to be an example to put off others from speaking up. It is likely a Statutory Duty of Care would have prevented the reckless decisions by the college over many years.

Submitted December, 2023

I feel very let down by my son's university. During his first term he suffered a lot of illness. He had to call 999 in the end. His mental health took a real dip as his physical illness meant he got behind in his work. There seemed to be no one in the university checking in with him. When he was physically and mentally poorly he was expected to wake up, and book a wellbeing appointment. Often he just didn't wake up in time, and by the time he did all the appointments had gone. Finally he got to see someone and after the summer contacted them again, only to be told that he had to go through the whole referral process again. Universities are quick to take students money but the duty of care is so lacking.

Submitted November, 2023

I raised concerns on institutional failings on the co-management of stress for students and staff contributing to increased risk factors for suicide. I did that whilst I was in a university safeguarding role. My employment of 10 years was terminated shortly after raising those concerns. I was accused of harassment for repeatedly raising those concerns on suicide risk because they were never addressed. That left me in constant fear of individuals or the university taking legal action against me. I was then too afraid to report my concerns to external regulators in case that lead to the university taking legal action against me for harassment. I have a vulnerability to a severe form of bipolar disorder and my mental health is not robust enough to handle the stress of a complex legal case which could financially ruin me. I have a young child and I want to see them grow up and to not to die by suicide because a university is unable to sensibly handle a situation where an individual raises a public interest disclosure on suicide risk. The gap between what universities say on mental health and what they actually do is making a significant contribution to the suicide risk. What kind of an organisation commits to a suicide prevention scheme and then fires an individual in a safeguarding role for raising concerns on co-management of stress and the reduction of suicide risk?

Submitted September, 2023

I’ve had a tough summer mentally and I’ve had to balance trying to finish my last assignments so that I can graduate but it’s been so difficult to do so. I’ve been trying to push though and the university haven’t been any help at all or offered any mental health support - they keep telling me to decelerate and push back my assignments when really and truly, I just want to graduate and finish. It’s now left me with very negative thoughts and a lot of anxious thinking. I’m starting to give up and not think Ill be able to finish uni once and for all.

Submitted August, 2023

My STEM son (lifelong A’s) got an unkind anonymous letter threatening failure — anonymously — from his university’s non-existent “Academic Studies” department. Fearless student “services” staff’s revenge after we noticed same student (dis)-“services” missed a large bursary payment to him after Christmas — ruined his credit file and his ability for focused study (difficult STEM subject he was always good at before). He then got bedridden by flu (lack of food). Impactful, career-ending, costly big, and unnecessary retaliation , with no consequences whatsoever for the university. This family is devastated.

Submitted August, 2023

My son took his own life shortly after graduation. A couple of days before he told me it had been so lonely there, he didn't talk to anyone apart from the occasional chat in the library, he hadn't made any connections in 3 years so never would. He started in September 2020 covid rules, placed in a flat with 5 girls, he was the only boy, they liked to party he didn't, they made his life a misery, he came home at Christmas and continued rest of year 1 at home. He chose a studio flat for years 2 and 3, he kept telling us that he was happy with that, he had guitar club and jujitsu. When ever we said about going out more he always said studies come first, he was top of the class. Not sure how I will ever move on now my heart is broken forever.