Universities accused of hiding student suicide attempts behind GDPR

Universities have been criticised for using data protection regulations as a reason for not informing parents that their child has attempted suicide, in a debate about whether there should be a legal duty of care for students in higher education.

MPs taking part in the Westminster Hall debate were given a litany of examples of “appalling” behaviour by some universities, who were accused of telling students by email they would have to leave, awarding zero marks without explanation, and not calling emergency contact numbers in times of crisis.

They were told of the “completely unacceptable” experience of Mared Foulkes, who was in her second year studying pharmaceuticals at Cardiff University when she received an automated email from the university hours before her death, saying that she had failed her exams and would not be moving on to her third year.

In other examples, universities were accused of announcing the deaths of students before families had time to tell their wider circle of relatives, and deleting student records in advance of any coroner’s inquest.

“Given students pay £9,000 every year to universities, the question is, is this acceptable?” asked Nick Fletcher, Conservative MP for Don Valley, who opened the debate on Monday, outlining the findings of a survey carried out before the debate in which about half of students felt their university was “unsupportive”.

On universities citing general data protection regulation (GDPR) as a reason for not sharing information with parents, Fletcher said: “In my experience, safeguarding always overrides GDPR, so I think that’s definitely something that we really need to be looking at.”

The debate was triggered by a petition calling for the introduction of a legal duty of care for students in higher education, which was started in October 2022 by a group of bereaved parents whose children killed themselves while at university. It collected in excess of 128,000 signatures.

The bereaved families, which include the parents of Natasha Abrahart, who killed herself while a second-year physics student at the University of Bristol, argue universities should owe a statutory duty to exercise reasonable care and skill when teaching students and providing support services.

MPs were told that between 2017 and 2020 202 male students and 117 female died by suicide, though the suicide rate among students remains lower than the general population. They also heard that while some universities were doing good work to improve services, mental health support for students varies across the sector.

Responding earlier to the petition, the government said higher education providers already have a general duty of care not to cause harm to their students through their own actions and further legislation would be “disproportionate”.

Prof Steve West, vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England Bristol and president of Universities UK, which represents 140 providers, said the proposed additional statutory duty of care was not the best approach to supporting students.