Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of university students left their university courses early due to mental health issues in the 2024-25 academic year.

This government is breaking down barriers to opportunity by ensuring young people receive the mental health support they deserve. It is vital that higher education (HE) students are supported to achieve and thrive during their time at university.

Figures on non-continuation following year one of entry to HE are published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency for full-time first-degree entrants starting courses between the 2014/15 and 2019/20 academic years. Further information is available in Table T3 at: https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/performance-indicators/non-continuation.

More recent information on continuation rates, which are the inverse of non-continuation, for first year full-time degree entrants entering HE are published by the Office for Students (OfS). This is available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/data-and-analysis/access-and-participation-data-dashboard/data-dashboard/.

The proportion of UK domiciled student enrolments to HE providers who declared a mental health condition, such as depression, schizophrenia or anxiety disorder, was 5.6% in the 2022/23 academic year, compared with 1.8% in 2014/15. Although specific data on the number of students who have left their course due to a mental health issue is not known, we are determined that action is taken so students can maximise the opportunity to study in HE.

This government has committed to recruiting 8,500 additional staff across children and adult NHS mental health services.

To drive meaningful change in HE mental health support, the HE Student Support Champion, Professor Edward Peck, is chairing the HE Mental Health Implementation Taskforce. The taskforce includes representatives from students, parents, mental health experts and the HE sector. The taskforce published its second stage report in December, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/higher-education-mental-health-implementation-taskforce.

We appointed the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health to undertake a National Review of HE Student Suicides. This review has seen excellent engagement from universities and will publish its report in the spring, with a focus on highlighting lessons learned and recommendations for better prevention of student suicides.