Parents demand action after children took own lives at university

The parents of youngsters who took their own lives after embarking on studies at university are lobbying to make the educational establishments take on a legal duty of care for all students.

It follows an appearance during Mental Health Awareness Week before a panel at the House of Commons by a mother who lost her daughter Phoebe to suicide. Hilary Grime said students did not have the “time or know-how to fight this battle – an individual couldn’t take on universities and governments alone”.

Parliament will now debate the issue, which has been backed by MPs Caroline Noakes and Helen Grant, on June 5, marking the second anniversary of Phoebe’s death. In 2021, Phoebe was on course to take first-class honours in her philosophy degree at Newcastle University.

READ MORE: Experts identify when in the year and at what times suicidal thoughts peak

But the 20-year-old second-year student from Kent was struggling every day with her mental health after losing her father to cancer earlier that year, and had been active in asking for help.

Mother Hilary said the warning signs had been there for all to see, but no one at the university contacted her. “I knew she was unhappy, but not quite how bad it was,” Hilary said. “Phoebe told her counsellor that she ‘wished the pain to end’. They did nothing. Twenty hours later, she tried to take her own life.

“Why didn’t they contact me?” she said. “Alarm bells should have been ringing. The therapist just told her to practise self care. When someone expresses a wish to end their life the courses of action are many, but they are not going home and running a hot bath.”

A spokesman for Newcastle University said Phoebe was “remembered fondly” as a talented and dedicated student, and had been given counselling during her studies.

“The coroner in Phoebe’s inquest could not identify any point where things could have been done differently by the University or by her private counsellor,” the spokesman said. “Nonetheless, we continuously seek to improve support services and work with key partners to help any student struggling with their mental health.”

Meanwhile, at Sheffield Hallam University, Maxine Carrick’s son Oskar had started studying for his dream degree in film — and she thought her son would be in safe hands.

The 20-year-old was living with a brain injury from a car accident 18 months earlier, and was listed as a disabled student when he embarked on the course in September 2020.

But tragedy struck the following June when the mother-of-five received the worst call imaginable to any parent – Oskar had taken his own life.

“It was a horrendous shock – we had no idea he was suicidal,” Maxine, a 58-year-old secondary school teacher told The Mirror.

The family from Sedgwick, Cumbria, were shocked to later learn that Oskar had attempted to take his life before — just three weeks earlier. Despite the university’s knowledge of this, no one from the family was told.

“When I went to empty his room [at university] we didn’t even know where his body was – we had to ring around hospitals trying to find my own child,” said Maxine.

Shortly before Oskar’s inquest in Sheffield, Maxine said she found out her son had already tried to take his own life in April. “He was allowed to walk back unchallenged and go back to his halls,” she said.

“One security guard told the university he had just walked back in. This was logged on their system but we don’t know who that went to.”

Any change in mood or behaviour should be a major red flag for young people with brain injuries, but the university told the inquest it had not been considered an emergency at the time.

“We were told that the opt-in box for universities to be able to contact families was only there for emergencies like a broken leg,” the mother said.

Sheffield Hallam said it took students’ wellbeing “extremely seriously” and had “significantly increased resources” of support in recent years. A spokesman said: “The inquest into Oskar’s tragic death did not reference any failings on the part of the University.

“The coroner also commented that she was content the University was engaging with discussions surrounding consent on a sector-wide national level.”

Maxine and her partner Gary are not alone — there are dozens of parents bereaved by their children’s suicides in the UK. Now they are getting together to campaign for universities to take on a legal duty of care over students.

Despite students currently paying in excess of £9,000 a year in tuition fees, universities have no legal responsibility for their welfare.

Last year, a coroner criticised Exeter University when an inquest heard that student Harry Armstrong-Evans had taken his own life despite a “cry for help” after receiving poor results on exam papers sat in his halls due to the pandemic.

Cambridge University – which was last year fined for making a student do a presentation before she took her own life – saw six students die by suicide during the 2021-22 academic year.

In February this year Aberystwyth University student Charlie McLeod took his own life – days after informing staff he was having suicidal thoughts – but his family said no contact was made with them. The university said it had kept in touch with Charlie throughout the year.

Data from the 2019/20 academic year — the most recent available — show that 64 higher education students — or three per 100,000 — took their own lives.

Hilary Grime and Maxine Carrick both went to London earlier this week to tell their stories with other parents at a petitions committee hearing, after more than 128,000 people signed a petition for universities to take on statutory responsibility towards students.

Clarise Pattison, Strategic Change Lead for Young People at Mind said: “We know that University can be a difficult time, presenting many challenges that can cause stress — living independently, often for the first time, meeting and working with new people, managing money, being away from your support network, work deadlines or exams, or worrying about job prospects.

“Good mental health is central to flourishing and making the most of university and its opportunities. Numerous surveys in the UK and internationally indicate that approximately a third of university students experience serious emotional and mental health difficulties, including anxiety and depression, but only 20-30 per cent access treatment.”

If you or anyone you know is struggling, Samaritans are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week on 116 123.

PAPYRUS (0800 068 41 41) is a voluntary organisation supporting teenagers and young adults