A leading university has been ordered to pay £50,000 in damages to the parents of a vulnerable student who took her own life, after a senior judge ruled it had discriminated against her.
In a landmark case that has deep implications for other higher education institutions, the parents of Natasha Abrahart successfully sued the University of Bristol under the Equality Act.
Abrahart, 20, a physics undergraduate who suffered from severe social anxiety, died a day before she was due to give a “terrifying” oral exam in front of teachers and fellow students.
Her parents, Robert and Margaret Abrahart, claim failings at the university played a vital role in their daughter’s death, and called for the government to meet them and other parents who have lost children, in order to find ways of improving the care universities provide to vulnerable students.
