The University of Cambridge has come under fire from its Student Union in the past year after the increase in the number of recorded suicides at its colleges.
Our Freedom of Information request has revealed the university recorded six deaths by suicide in 2022 – in stark contrast to the data in 2021, where the University only recorded one death by suicide.
This is an increase of 500 per cent in the students taking their own lives at the institution which has an average student population of 20,000.
The six students who took their own lives died within four months of each other, which has pressured the university to take action.
According to the Telegraph, one of the students, Anup Debnath, 20, who died on June 12 said he had told his GP he had lost a friend to suicide weeks before and promised to not harm himself. This loss had increased suicidal thoughts for Debnath.
Cambridge’s Student Union said: “It’s wrong to speculate on the circumstances surrounding each student’s death, but we should not shy away from the fact that there is a student mental health crisis at Cambridge.
“Let us be frank – one student death is too many, but the numbers we have seen in the past few months are especially troubling.”
The University launched a Suicide Prevention Plan in the summer of 2021, but the Union was alarmed by the concerns raised by certain colleges within the institution.
They added: “Senior leaders in some colleges, particularly Trinity, pushed back against the idea that the colleges have or should have a responsibility to try to prevent suicide. Their interventions contorted the policy into a shamefully unambitious ‘Suicide-Safer Strategy’, which has been diluted beyond recognition.
“Crucially, colleges had the aim of preventing suicides removed from the plan, along with a range of active measures the University and colleges would have implemented to prevent suicide.”
The Union want the plan rectified to fully promote student support and a set of detailed preventative measures for suicide.
“Aiming for a world in which every single suicide is prevented is ambitious. But it always, always worthwhile, even if it saves the life of just one student.”
Cambridge Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, Professor Graham Virgo, said the university was “shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic deaths of these students at the University.”
Professor Virgo said that it had pledged to invest £5 million into mental health support and student well-being, launching a new detailed plan to help students get the advice they need.
A spokesperson for Cambridge University said: “Nothing is more important than the safety and well-being of our students and so we have recently launched a new Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Plan which includes swifter access to counselling, increased capacity in our support services and our Reach Out campaign to ensure students know where to find help.”
The plan is to be fully implemented by 2025 and states that the University will increase access to counselling and build on ongoing work with staff to support students. There will also be a partnership with local NHS organisations to improve students’ pathways to mental health services.
Professor Virgo added: “This plan targets areas in which we believe we can see the greatest impact, and these recent tragic deaths show how vital this work is.”
