“If I’d have died, I don’t think anyone would have noticed”: An investigation into the harsh reality of student mental health at UCL
Artwork by Viky Klein
Margareta Durovcikova investigates student mental health at UCL; hearing from struggling students, experts, and Student Psychological Services themselves.
It seems to be everywhere in the media, yet when I started researching the issue a year ago, there was little research on what mental health among students really looks like. Universities across the UK have been reporting alarming statistics about the state of student mental health, but there is little such information about UCL. This is why I decided to investigate mental health at UCL, which eventually evolved into a year-long journey. My investigation has found the situation at UCL to be dire – psychological services are in high demand, yet they are continuously under-resourced, underfunded and understaffed.
Recently, a shocking statistic drew attention specifically to the University of Bristol, where 12 students died by suspected suicide between September 2016 and May 2019. Some would argue that this highlights the devastating impact of lacking provisions for mental health. Sadly, this issue is not isolated to the University of Bristol. A report by the Guardian found that since 2010, the number of students reporting mental ill-health has increased fivefold, with 34% feeling that they needed professional help. Furthermore, in 2015, Student Minds revealed that students are more likely to report depression, anxiety or low mood than in previous years and that more students are at high risk of self-harm.
Students struggle and psychological services cannot cope
I started by looking at the anonymous confession page, UCLove which showed students’ struggles with mental health. In the span of 3 weeks they posted 8 confessions about mental health ranging from advice on depression to contemplating suicide. I find it problematic that students turn to a Facebook confessions page rather than specialised services to deal with mental health difficulties, as it implies a failure to provide accessible or effective psychological services.
To gain further insight into student mental health at UCL, I posted a survey on UCLove, which showed that students need psychological services but see them as inaccessible. Most of respondents (87.9%) said they knew someone at UCL who struggled with mental health and only 6.8% reported never struggling with mental health themselves while at UCL. Of those who said they had struggled, only 54.2% contacted Student Psychological Services (SPS). While my survey had a sample of 59 respondents, which is not very representative of the over 40,000 UCL students, it indicated that there is a feeling among students that SPS provision is inadequate.
Conversations with UCL students about their experiences with SPS confirmed that they have trouble accessing mental health care. One medical student confessed disregarding their problems at first, fearing the stigma surrounding mental health: “Many medics don’t disclose [mental health problems] because they’re afraid it will affect their career and future. There are very few people who are open about it.” After working the whole summer after second year, the student attempted suicide.
Students also emphasised the slow response from SPS to requests for counselling. A master’s student described first developing mental health issues as an undergraduate at UCL: “In year 2 of my undergraduate degree, I started feeling unwell and that's when I contacted the psychological services — I did that in early January and they didn't get back to me until mid-March.”
Long waiting times for psychological services is a common issue across higher education institutions. For example, the Guardian reported waiting times of up to 112 days at Edinburgh Napier University. My survey showed a similar trend at UCL: of those who applied for student psychological services, 63.3% waited over 3 weeks to get a reply.
An FOI I filed showed this, too. Average waiting time at UCL to see a specialist for students considered at no risk of suicide or dropping out of university is 33 days. Psychological services are assigned based on assessed risk — someone at risk of suicide or dropping out of university would be considered high risk and would firstly be referred to A&E or their GP. After this they would still wait an average of 21 days for professional help.
Big (little) funding
The lengthy waiting times are not at all surprising considering SPS is in high demand yet continuously underfunded. Each month in the 2017/18 academic year, SPS saw a median of 158.5 new clients. The month of October was particularly noticeable with 458 new clients. Considering SPS report having the equivalent of only 13.1 full time employees in 2019, it is no wonder students wait for months to be seen by a counsellor.
Students have been demanding more funding for psychological services, but the university’s response has been far from adequate. In 2017, the Students’ Union estimated that a figure of £340,000 annual investment and an increase of 6.5 counsellors would ensure all students registered with SPS would be seen. The combined efforts of the union and the “UCL: Fund Our Mental Health Services” campaign finally lead to an additional £140,000 for mental health support, enough to employ 2.7 full time equivalent employees more. While an admirable accomplishment, this figure falls well below that assessed necessary in 2017.
More broadly, I would argue that the allocation of UCL funds signals questionable priorities. In 2017-18 UCL saw an income totalling £1.45 billion and the same year the Office for Students ranked the provost’s annual salary (a whopping £368,000) as the 7th highest provost salary in the UK. It is truly mind-boggling that UCL would choose to pay incredibly high salaries at the same time as under-funding psychological services. This only leads to students feeling overlooked, as expressed by one student, who said: “Last year, if I’d have died, I don’t think anyone would have noticed”.
A light at the end of the tunnel
Other universities have shown that it is possible to have psychological services with high standards. In 2018, Sheffield University services became the first university counselling services to be accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Psychological Society, showing high standards and continual improvement. In January 2019, counselling services at University of St Andrews were also given this accreditation.
To assess where UCL could improve and discover what this looks like in practice, I spoke with Robert Barnsley, the mental health support manager at the University of Sheffield. Barnsley explained that they firstly abandoned waiting lists: “We do not assess risk in students, this only leads to waiting lists which result in some people never being seen […] but students do wait an average of 5 days for an initial session in which we decide what type of support they need.”
He also noted that one of the important changes they implemented was a continual evaluation of the service: “students constantly provide feedback on the service which we gather through feedback forms which are sent out after sessions are completed.”
If other universities have been able to provide more effective mental health services, why has UCL done so little to improve its own? As I’ve argued, it is an issue of priorities. UCL’s misplaced priorities have caused psychological services to be ineffective, especially compared to other institutions. Despite UCL’s vast financial resources, SPS are underfunded and unable to cope with the high demand. While UCL has provided its students with high quality education, some ultimately feel overlooked by the university, as one student expressed: “you know you should work and you should accomplish because you’re in this world-class university […] what is it for if you’re just going to crumble under the pressure?”
In response to this article, UCL Student Support and Wellbeing highlighted recent changes in their system: “The mental health and wellbeing of our students is extremely important and demand for services is obviously increasing, which is why SPS [...] have made a number of changes over the past academic year to improve access to psychological support. We recognise that there is of course still more to do, and we’re committed to working with our students to provide the best possible support services.” Whether these changes will be enough to support the students, only time will tell.
For now, UCL students can only hope the recent changes will lead to more support in their struggles. Still, it is clearly high time to acknowledge that quality education alone does not produce competent graduates. To produce healthy and capable graduates UCL must redefine its priorities and invest more in its most valuable resource – its students.
The names of students have been removed to protect their identities. If you are struggling with mental health, you can contact UCL Psychological Services or call the Samaritans helpline, available 24/7 at 116 123.