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Mental Health League Table: Is Your Uni Doing Enough?

There Is Now A League Table Ranking Universities by Mental Health Support


For the first time ever, universities are being ranked on more than just academic performance. In an attempt to combat the mental health crisis at the higher education level, Men's Mental Health charity HUMEN has created the first-ever University Mental Health League Table. The table has the potential to save lives by forcing universities to take a deeper look into the mental health support they offer. It will also empower students to make an informed choice about where they study. The table has been created with support from mental health activist and author, Ben West.

Since 2016 over a four-year period, there were at least 319 suicides at universities and higher education colleges in England and Wales alone. And suicide is the biggest killer of under 35s in the UK. This is tragic, but not surprising. While some students will arrive at university with mental health difficulties, others crash under pressure to succeed academically, financial stress, and distance from loved ones. It makes sense, then, that over a quarter of UK students (37 percent) say their state of mental well-being changed for the worse after starting higher education. A further 65 percent say their studies and university lifestyle impacts their state of well-being negatively. HUMEN criticises the government for its tiny university mental health package, which equates to approximately £1 per student and 1 percent of the funding needed to address the mental health crisis.

These are the sort of figures that West is trying to reverse. In 2018, West lost his 15-year-old brother to suicide, and this terrible event pushed him to start a campaign around mental health awareness and prevention. He has since garnered the support of Prince William, Boris Johnson, and his 48K followers. Tackling poor mental health at university level is his next mission. "The aim is to give parents and students the means to make informed choices about where they study and then, over time, we can drive universities to improve their support through the power we hold as consumers," the author of "This Book Could Save Your Life: Breaking the Silence around the Mental Health Emergency" told his Instagram followers. West added: "Please check it out, send it to your friends, family or anyone you know that's thinking of applying to university. Please help get the word out, I can't cope with the thought of having to meet another friend or family member. That is an awful, awful thought."

A one-year study of over 7,200 students across 80 universities is what enabled the charity to produce the HUMEN Mental Health League Table. The table uses an index scoring system, which allows prospective students and their parents to compare universities based on Satisfaction, Engagement, Awareness, Financing, and Service provision. Each university is scored on each of these elements from "Very Poor" to "Excellent" and assigned a "Total Mental Health Score." Right now, the University of Reading sits proudly at the top of the leaderboard. The Berkshire-based institution is followed closely by Oxford University, University of Central Lancashire, The University of York, and Canterbury Christ Church University.

The life-saving tool raises awareness of the fact that the "best" universities for academia aren't necessarily the "best" when it comes to mental health. For example, universities such as the University of Birmingham (80th), the University of Newcastle (76th), and the University of Nottingham (73rd) are ranked in the bottom 10 despite their reputation for excellence. Reassessed every single year — just like academic tables — the mental health table will be continuously updated, giving universities the chance to move up and others to be dragged down if they don't make an effort to improve their services.

The charity wrote on its official Instagram page: "The HUMEN Mental Health League Table is set to sit alongside purely academic league tables and will be produced every single year, as the academic tables are. Our students deserve better, their life's depend on it. We need this to be shared as far and wide as possible, please reshare this post using the hashtag #HMHLT One voice. Is anyone listening? @universitiesuk"

Although Gen Z are the generation most likely to open up about mental health, the terrifying numbers don't lie, and there is a mental health epidemic happening. The invention of a mental health league table could raise the noise needed to make mental health conversations commonplace. The mental health services on offer at a university should be considered just as important as the exam results received by its students, how big its libraries are, and what nightclubs populate the area. And this table will put pressure on those in positions of power to finally step up.


Image Source: Getty / Malte Mueller
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