A coroner has issued a warning to Southampton University over the “awareness, understanding and curiosity” of academic staff around the mental health of students after a student killed himself on the day his exam results were due.
Christopher Wilkinson, the senior area coroner for Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton, said interruptions to academic work and to the rhythms of normal student life during and after the pandemic had had a significant impact on mental health.
The coroner issued a preventing future deaths report to the Russell Group university after the death of Matthew Wickes, an engineering student, in June 2022. An inquest in Winchester concluded that 21-year-old Wickes took his own life while suffering from an acute anxiety crisis.
Wilkinson said: “I am concerned about the level of awareness, understanding and curiosity of academic staff around the mental health of students, particularly in the post-pandemic climate where interruptions to their study and dysregulated student life have had a significant impact on their mental health.”
A number of universities have been criticised over the support provided to struggling students, among them Bristol University, which was ordered to pay damages to the parents of Natasha Abrahart, 20, who died a day before she was due to give a “terrifying” oral exam in front of teachers and fellow students.
A coroner strongly criticised the University of Exeter over the suicide of another student, Harry Armstrong Evans, claiming it failed to respond effectively to his “cry for help” after a disastrous set of exam results.
During Wickes’s inquest, Southampton University said all staff were offered training on mental health management and provided with guidance on how to support students. But Wilkinson said: “I am concerned that aspects of this are not made compulsory for academic staff … It remains unclear as to who or how many staff have actually viewed or undertaken the online training around student mental health.”
