Student mental health difficulties are on the rise, and so are inequalities

As current discussions around higher education understandably focus on the challenges (especially around funding) that the sector faces, the experience of the nearly three million students attending our universities and colleges can often be overlooked.

Current students generally benefit from and enjoy their time in higher education, but the national conversation too often ignores the challenges students face and the inequalities that many students experience.

One area that deserves greater attention is student mental health.

Correlation

In a report published today, we find that the proportion of students reporting mental health difficulties has reached 18 per cent, tripling in just seven years. This implies that around 300,000 of the UK’s undergraduate student population is affected by mental health difficulties, a number that has been rising over recent years.

And the rise in reported mental health difficulties is greater for some student groups than others. Notably, twice as many women as men report mental health difficulties, while rates for LGBTQ+ students are particularly high, rising to nearly one in three for lesbian (30 per cent) and bisexual (29 per cent) students. Higher still are the rates for trans students (around 40 per cent report mental health difficulties) and nonbinary students (over half report mental health difficulties). While sample sizes make it harder to compare trends over time for these groups, the rates of mental health difficulties are shocking, and require action from higher education providers.

There is an association between socio-economic status and mental health difficulties. Mental health difficulties are directly correlated with higher participation rates: for every POLAR region of higher education participation, the lower the rate of higher education participation, the higher the proportion of people reporting mental health difficulties. Similarly, state educated pupils are more likely to report difficulties than privately educated pupils, indicating a need for greater support for children’s mental health services too.

Better reporting

There are some possible explanations for the sharp rise in student mental health difficulties. First, it is important to note that these figures reflect respondents’ self-reported mental health. Compared to a decade ago, there is less social stigma around disclosing and discussing mental health difficulties, and this may mean that previous reporting underestimated the numbers facing difficulties. There has also been a wider rise in mental health difficulties among all younger people, sometimes linked to the cost of living, concerns about the climate crisis or negative experiences on social media and smartphones. Our findings do not allow us to conclude which (if any) of these explanations is driving the rise in mental health difficulties, but given the rate of increase over the last seven years, it is unlikely to be caused by one explanation alone.

There is one positive finding in the study, namely that over the course of their studies, LGBTQ+ students experience a relative increase in wellbeing. It is important to note that these students still have higher rates of mental health difficulties compared to their peers, but it’s also worth reflecting on the beneficial role that attending higher education can bring. Particularly for younger LGBTQ+ students, higher education may allow them to navigate and affirm their identity in a new way, and find like-minded friends and peers for the first time. Indeed, there may be learning for other organisations and institutions, particularly employers, in thinking about how they enable wellbeing among their recent and future graduate employees.

Public health

What, then, can be done to better address student mental health? One important change would be to adopt a "public health" approach to student mental health, and mental health generally. Higher education providers could also ensure that they effectively signpost students to both wellbeing support services and to clinical health services where required. Significantly, given that some students are more likely to experience mental health difficulties than others, providers also need to ensure these services reach everyone, and may need to tailor their services to do so.

A key recommendation regards students leaving their courses. In the survey, mental health difficulties was by far the most common reason cited for why students were considering dropping out of their course, mentioned almost five times more than the second most common reason (financial difficulties). Providers therefore need to ensure that their retention efforts address mental health while also measuring how wellbeing and mental health support impacts on the likelihood that students complete their courses.

Providers need to ensure that they are effectively evaluating their wellbeing and mental health services. It is positive that mental health is now seen as an important area for university services, and that social stigma has declined. Tight financial circumstances are increasing pressure on universities, and we all recognise the challenges of meeting every student need. At the same time, foregrounding the interests of students and ensuring their success in higher education requires a more extensive, effect focus on student mental health, not least given the extent of mental health difficulties, and how inequalities both produce and amplify these difficulties, before, during and after students leave higher education.