Universities are working to support their students and staff and to make their communities safer.
Suicide-safer universities
Suicides are not like other sudden deaths. As well as being devastating for family and friends, suicides at university profoundly affect the student and staff community.
In 2018, we published Suicide-safer universities. The publication provides guidance for universities on preventing student suicide.
Additional guidance
In 2022, we published further guidance on particular areas. These cover:
In May 2023, we surveyed our members about uptake of Suicide Safer Universities main and additional guidance.
The survey results provide detail of the questions and responses.
We encourage universities to make mental health a strategic priority in our framework, Stepchange: mentally healthy universities.
Universities Scotland has also published its own guidance on Suicide-safer universities in Scotland.
Stepchange: mentally healthy universities
A whole university approach
We believe all UK universities should make mental health a strategic priority. Universities should be places that promote mental health and wellbeing and enable all students and all staff to succeed to their potential.
We can achieve this by adopting a whole university approach. This means that all aspects of university life promote and support student and staff mental health.
The whole university approach recommends that all aspects of university life promote and support student and staff mental health.
