The University of Cambridge has come under fire after axing a mindfulness programme for students, at a time of mounting concern about young people’s mental health and suicides in higher education.
A campaign has been launched to try to save the “mindfulness skills for students programme”, which has been offering free classes since 2015 and has supported more than 2,500 Cambridge students over the years.
Among its supporters is Dr Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury and former master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, who told the Guardian: “There’s no disagreement that student mental health gives more and more cause for concern.
“But the most effective way of responding, as many professionals agree, is not instantly to ‘medicalise’ all the problems but to provide tools that will genuinely help young people care for themselves and develop habits of self-understanding and self-awareness.
“The mindfulness programme has offered exactly this, and I think the ending of support for it is very bad news indeed.”
Mindfulness has become a popular meditation technique aimed at focusing the mind on the present moment, and involves learning how to pay attention and manage feelings and behaviour, to improve resilience in the face of external stressors.
An open letter, signed by Cambridge alumni who say they have benefited from the programme, has been sent to the vice-chancellor, Prof Deborah Prentice, who took up the post in July, calling on her to reverse the decision.
The letter highlights the “relentless” pressure on students at Cambridge, adding: “Counselling services are promoted for those in real difficulty, and that is good.
“Yet we strongly feel that the mindfulness programme gives students the tools to cope so that they do not reach the point where their mental health breaks down and they need counselling – or when things get so bad that the consequences are even worse.”
There have been a number of suicides by students at Cambridge university, like many others across the UK. The university said the mindfulness course had been closed after a review of its “scale, impact and efficacy”, as part of an evaluation of the wider support services on offer for students. Overall investment has increased and waiting times for counselling have been cut.
Supporters of the mindfulness programme, run by Cambridge’s first mindfulness practitioner Elizabeth English, believe the course should remain part of the university’s offer to students. English said: “Students still want mindfulness. It makes a massive difference to their happiness and their mental health.”
Charlotte Hofton, who graduated from Lucy Cavendish College last year, said the programme was a lifesaver. “Cambridge can be daunting. It can be lonely. It can overwhelm. Not all young students, many of them away from home for the first time, are having a brilliant experience. I cannot comprehend why anybody should suppose that the mindfulness project, whose benefits are utterly proven, should cease.”
A university spokesperson denied that the course had closed for financial reasons: “We have a responsibility to routinely evaluate our services to ensure their effectiveness in supporting students. The centrally run mindfulness classes were brought to an end following careful consideration of their scale, impact and efficacy.
“The decision was in no way based on financial reasons, nor have there been any financial cutbacks to student wellbeing services. Rather, the university has increased its investment in student support, committing £4.75m to student mental health services between 2022 and 2025.
“We offer a wide range of student support including counselling, wellbeing and mental health, harassment and violence, and accessibility and disability support services, alongside additional academic and wellbeing support available to students via their college.”
• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
