The new academic year is starting this week for schools and this month for universities. After three education years blighted by Covid, expectations and excitement are high. How many students will be dead before the year is over?
Some 319 young people died by suicide while at university between 2016 and 2020, as reported yesterday. These cases, each an unimaginable tragedy, highlight how much more proactive universities, not least the grandest, must be. They have a moral and educational duty to care better for their students. It is four years since Universities UK developed a suicide prevention strategy, but too many vice-chancellors are still reluctant to embrace it and follow the strong lead of Steve West, its president.
