Students suffering from mental illness are on the verge of getting penalized if they continue to miss their classes further. This is a major loophole found at the top universities in Britain as they have no policies to help such students. Of the top universities, less than 20% of them claim that they contact students after they have missed a certain number of classes. The others don’t even have any such policy.
This information was obtained under the freedom of information act. This has led to the educationists questioning the universities about their provision to help their students with mental issues, especially when the number of suicides by undergraduate students has jumped this year.
No crucial help for students with mental illness
Bristol University’s Natasha Abrahart, who committed suicide last year, had some serious social anxiety issues. The university was very well aware of her conditions but they didn’t help her due to a lack of facilities or a proper system. Parents of Ceara Thacker, a student of Liverpool University, who took her life last month, has demanded that universities and colleges should have a proper system for their students.
Some universities have a provision of contacting the students if they miss their classes. But issuing a formal warning without offering any help doesn’t really help the case. Students who have issues have no help from their teachers either.
More than 12 months to get an appointment
Aberdeen University students claim that they have been waiting for more than 12 months to get an appointment with the university’s mental health services. Students who miss their classes are rather sent email warnings about how their position in the university is at risk.
The situation is the same even at Glasgow University and Durham University too. However, all the universities have defended themselves when asked to explain the lack of proper facilities.
Nick Hilman, who serves as the director of the Higher Education Policy Institute says that it is unfortunate that this doesn’t surprise him. However, with the recent suicides, some universities have gotten pretty serious and want to have a proper system for students in distress.
Overall, the number of suicides in Britain’s universities has increased fivefold ever since 2007. Students need to be helped with their mental illness rather than being summoned with a threat.
There was an outpouring of help from strangers on Twitter to students with mental illness in the UK and that’s a good sign.
For two consecutive days, marathoners braved the heavy downpour to join the outpour of sympathies.
