The Government is to write to all universities telling them to sign up to a mental health charter by next year - but ministers have stopped short of accepting the need for stronger laws to ensure universities take responsibility for students’ mental health.
But university bosses have been warned that if they don’t voluntarily strengthen their support for the well-being of students and their suicide prevention measures, the Government will return to the issue and consider making it a statutory duty. The issue was debated in Parliament yesterday (Monday) after 128,292 people signed a petition.
It called on universities to be made responsible in law for the well being of their students, following the suicides of hundreds of students across the country in the past few years. Leading the campaign is the family of Natasha Abrahart, a Bristol student who took her own life in 2018.
