Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of suicides committed by persons in full-time Higher Education.

Every suicide is a tragedy. The government is committed to doing all we can to prevent these devastating events which we know have a profound and lasting impact on family and friends.

The Office for National Statistics published a refreshed dataset on suicide in the higher education (HE) population on 31 May 2022, available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/estimatingsuicideamonghighereducationstudentsenglandandwalesexperimentalstatistics/2017to2020. This dataset shows that the suicide rate for HE students in England and Wales for the academic year ending 2020 was lower than in the past four years. The HE student suicide rate is also lower when compared with the general population and with the same age group, however the numbers per year mean we have to be cautious in our interpretation of this data.

It is a high priority for the government that students get effective mental health and wellbeing support, and that action is taken to prevent future tragedies. The department expects all universities to take active steps to prevent suicides, to intervene and support students at risk, and to deal sensitively when a tragedy occurs. We continue to work closely with the Office for Students (OfS) and the HE sector to promote and fund effective practice which ensures that students are well supported.

We support the Suicide Safer Universities framework, led by Universities UK and Papyrus. This helps university leaders prevent student suicides and better support students and families with bereavement. Its approach has been widely adopted and is a key component of the University Mental Health Charter led by Student Minds.

To ensure that all students have access to dedicated mental health support no matter where they study, the department asked the OfS to fund Student Space, a mental health and wellbeing online platform for students, with up to £3.6 million invested so far. It has been accessed by over 250,000 students since its launch in August 2020.

OfS has allocated an additional £15 million in the 2022/23 financial year help address the challenges to student mental health posed by the transition to university and to support better joined up working with NHS services. This funding targets those students in greatest need of such services, including vulnerable groups and hard to reach students.

This government is also investing at least £2.3 billion of extra funding a year to expand and transform mental health services by 2023/24 as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.

The department will continue to work closely with experts to ensure that we are taking all necessary steps to prevent suicides among university students.