Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to address rates of university students taking their own lives.

The Government takes these issues seriously. Higher Education Institutions, as autonomous and independent bodies, have clear legal responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 to support their students, including those with mental health conditions.

Ensuring the wellbeing of students is important to our universities. Institutions are best placed to determine what welfare and counselling services they need to provide to their students and to ensure mechanisms are in place to identify students in need.

There is a great deal of guidance and support available to institutions from a range of sector and medical bodies. In February 2015, Universities UK published a Good Practice Guide on, student mental wellbeing in higher education. It aims to support institutions in building and improving their provision for students with mental health problems including to help prevent suicide.

The Department of Health also published a cross-government suicide prevention strategy in September 2012, ‘Preventing Suicide in England.’ The objectives of the strategy are to reduce suicide and support people bereaved or affected by suicide.