Bereaved parents whose children have killed themselves while at university have criticised the government’s planned review of student suicides in England, describing it as “a slap in the face” for families.
The higher education minister, Robert Halfon, announced the national review earlier this year amid mounting concern over student mental health and a series of suicides that attracted widespread coverage in the media.
However, parents say there are “significant shortcomings” in the proposed terms of reference for the student suicide review. They say the timeframe is too short, looking primarily at suicides and “near misses” – a term they describe as insensitive – in the 2023-24 academic year.
They are also concerned that the review as proposed will not be sufficiently rigorous or independent, and will be limited instead to a meta-analysis of internal university reports into a student’s suicide, produced by the very institutions that many parents blame for not taking adequate care of their child.
A report by ForThe100, a national group of bereaved parents campaigning for higher education students to be owed a minimum standard of legal protection enshrined in a statutory duty of care, is calling on the government to revise the planned review.
“We urge the government and the taskforce to thoroughly re-evaluate their proposal and put in the necessary effort to rectify its considerable shortcomings,” the report says. “We all owe this to those students who have already been harmed or died and to current and future generations of students.”
The report also calls for the focus to shift from blaming students for struggling, to addressing the underlying systems that leave them vulnerable. “Rather than merely praising resilience, there should be a concerted effort to bring about systemic changes in the higher education landscape.”
