The Russell Groups where students are the least happy with their uni’s mental health services

Today marks World Mental Health Day, a day to talk about and raise awareness of mental health. This year’s theme is “Mental Health is a Universal Right” addressing the inequalities in mental health services across the world.

Earlier this year, in a survey of 4,000 students at universities across the country, The Tab found that 69 per cent of students have suffered from a mental illness at university. A further 85 per cent of students struggling with mental health said they have had to miss a lecture or seminar as a result.

But just how well equipped are universities at dealing with student mental health? And how well are support services signposted to students?

This year’s National Student Survey featured a question about each universities mental health services. It asked how well students thought mental health services were signposted to them and students could answer “very well”, “well”, “not very well” or “not at all well”.

At the top of the list is Newcastle University where 82.4 per cent of students felt happy with the university’s mental health services. Of the 3,585 students surveyed, 1,433 answered “very well” and 1,511 said “well”. This is closely followed by The University of Birmingham where 79.8 per cent of students felt positively about Birmingham’s mental health services.

But, at the bottom of the list is The University of Edinburgh where 59.97 thought the university’s mental health services were not well signposted to them. 3,272 Edinburgh students answered the survey and of these students, 1,313 felt negatively about their university’s mental health support services.

These are the Russell Group university mental health services, ranked from best to worst, according to students:

You can read the full National Student Survey 2023 results here. 

If you or someone you know has been affected by this story, please speak to someone or contact Samaritans on 116 123 at any time. You can also contact Anxiety UK on 03444 775 774, Mind on 0300 123 3393, and Calm (Campaign against living miserably, for men aged 15 to 35) on 0800 58 58 58.

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