Dec 13, 2021
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Breaking Point
an audio documentary investigating student mental health services.
153,018
Click to listen to the article and hear extended quotes from the interviewees!
Over 150,000 students accessed university-funded mental health support in 2020/21.
The number of students accessing university-funded mental health support has increased by nearly 100,000 since 2015/16. Data for the latest academic year, requested from every university in the United Kingdom, shows 153,018 students accessed their university support services: in 2015/16 that figure was 61,257.
Universities say precise comparisons will always be made complicated by the fact universities have adapted the way in which they've collected data: of those that were able to provide figures across the five year period only eight universities recorded a decrease in demand. The overall number of students accessing services has increased every academic years since 2015/16 with a total of 611,708 students recorded as engaging with services during the five years.
Responding to the nationwide increase, Dr Denise Meyer - Director of Wellbeing at the University of Portsmouth - described the figures as 'unsurprising' and said: "If you look back (over the years) you will see a steady increase across the sector... it is something that has been quite well tracked: not only increasing numbers (of students) but also increasing severity and complexity of the issues that they are presenting with so it's a kind of a double whammy in that sense."
Throughout the pandemic many universities increase expenditure on online mental health resources in order to provide remote accessibility. Only 51 Universities provided a five year rundown of expenditure but, of those that did, mental health funding increased by an average 86.9% to a total of £35,011,936 in 2020/21: the increase in students accessing services over that same period was 149.7%
Dr Monika Nangia, Director of Student and Academic Experience, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, explained how being able to access services from home had helped reduced stigmas surrounding support: "In most cases (online services) have been designed and developed to be anonymised so that has really opened up the provision to a whole new group of students. Before they would have had to come on campus, make an appointment, wait in an area where they might have felt embarrassed to be seen in: now, having online support, means they are still getting regular one-to-one support but without having to put themselves out there."
Very little of the data used as part of this project was publically available prior to the publication of the documentary. This has led to for some students to call for greater transparency from their universities.
Ella, a student at Arts University Bournemouth said: "I definitely feel as though universities should be required to publish this sort of information to students before they apply because it would probably have made me think twice about coming to AUB."
Those sentiments were echoed by Callum, a student at Reading University, who said: "If for whatever reason (the university) aren't able to do something then they should still let us know because then we can say 'okay they've tried that avenue, it hasn't worked but fair enough. They need to communicate that with the students because if you don't know then you just assume they're not trying."
Dr Nangia added that it was important universities were transparent about admitting they don't always have the all the resources required to provide comprehensive wellbeing services: "My key message (to other universities) would be to not pretend and think you can do everything: you can't and your students needs are so varied (so) what we need is to make sure we are well connected to services within the community."
Arts University Bournemouth and Reading University both declined to participate in the project.
TRANSPARENCY
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