Bereaved parents whose daughter died by suicide at the University of Bristol have said they will keep campaigning to establish that UK institutions have a legal duty of care to their students after a judge stopped short of imposing this.
Robert and Margaret Abrahart saw their claim that Bristol had breached the Equality Act by failing to adjust its assessments so their daughter Natasha could participate in her course upheld this month after a High Court appeal. Natasha, who died in 2018, had a severe anxiety disorder.
However, considering a separate claim that the university owed a duty of care to Natasha under negligence law, Mr Justice Linden declined to express a view, partly because the “issue is one of potentially wide application and significance”.
Dr Abrahart, a retired lecturer, said this had been “the whole point of doing it”, adding: “We thought it was so important someone pushed the boundary to test the water to see what the court would do.”
