Cardiff Met student died by suicide after not going to lectures for five months

A Cardiff Met student has died by suicide after not going to lectures for five months.

Henry Duley from Whitstable, Kent, took his own life at the age of 20 at his family home on April 25th, only a day before he was set to return to university.

Henry did not originally want to go to university but after an apprenticeship opportunity fell through and practising various other roles, he decided university was right for him.

It was then in September 2023 that Henry went to Cardiff Metropolitan University, pursuing a foundation year for BSc in sports media.

Henry failed to attend many of his lectures, and whilst he did pass all of his online assessments, he stopped pursuing his studies in November.

Five months after he stopped going to university, he took his own life.

After Henry died, his family stated they no idea he had been having difficulties with his mental health, despite having regular contact with him whilst he was away.

His mother said: “Why didn’t we see it?” and “Did we see things that we didn’t necessarily pick up on?”

Henry’s family said that he “always had a lot of time for people” and was “very big on family.” He was also a football enthusiast and a loyal Chelsea FC supporter, Henry had played himself for both Whitstable and Kent teams.

Afterwards, Henry’s family questioned why Cardiff Metropolitan University’s staff hadn’t tried to contact him when he stopped engaging with his studies and showing up to lectures.

There was an inquest into his death and why there hadn’t been any investigation by the university on why Henry had stopped studying. It found that Cardiff Met did not have systems in place which identified non-attendance as a concern.

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However, some changes have begun being made in response to this case, to help other students.

Cardiff Met has implemented a trial of a new system called MetStat, which was already being organised before Henry’s death. This will link a joint record of attendance across all of a student’s lectures. Beforehand, attendance was marked only per semester.

The only contact the university had made was through email, which Henry had mostly not opened.

Area Coroner Sarah Clarke, spoke to Kirsty Palmer, Cardiff Met’s director of student services. She asked what level of attendance was expected for the students.

Kirsty Palmer said: “12 hours [per week].

“We do not keep a record of how many hours students put in in their own time.”

In fact, three students on Henry’s course passed their foundation year with zero per cent attendance for in-person seminars.

Kirsty Palmer spoke further, saying it was her “worst nightmare that there are students who can’t reach out or don’t want to reach out.”

In the wake of Henry’s death, his parents raised almost £8,000 for Campaign Against Living Miserably.

A spokeswoman for Cardiff Met said: “There are now clearer pathways for stepping up the communications activity and support to individual students who have poor engagement”.

If you have been affected by any of the themes in this article, you can access advice at charities such as Mind and C.A.L.L.

Feature image credit via Much Loved