Lancaster University placed second-lowest in new university mental health league table

Lancaster University placed 79th out of 80 unis in a mental health ranking by charity HUMEN, ranking only above Birmingham.

The list takes into account a range of factors, from the quality of mental health services and wait times, to how much universities actually spend on student support.

Lancaster received a score of 33.7, this is derived from scores of 54.4 (poor) for satisfaction, 52.6 (very poor) for engagement, and 63.3 (average) for awareness. It was unranked for financing and service provision.

The complete league table for the 80 universities can be found here.

When polled on their opinions regarding the university’s mental health support, 72% of Lancaster students said that they think that the university does not support mental health, whilst 93% voted that the uni could do more to support mental health. A further 77% of students voted that there are not ample resources if they were in need.

A spokesperson for the university said: “The mental health picture nationally for young people is of real concern for us as a society, and as a University we take our responsibility to support our community seriously.

“This league table has used an incomplete data set for Lancaster’s entry which has had a direct impact on our position. It therefore doesn’t reflect the important work or outcomes supporting students and staff at Lancaster.

We welcome efforts to shine a spotlight on the issue of mental health and will continue to build on the work already in place to improve student experience at Lancaster – from access to therapy with much longer opening hours (7-11pm 7 days a week) to increasing the range of languages spoken by therapists as well as tailored support for BAME and LGBT+ communities. Any student experiencing difficulties should know we are here for them with details available on our website at lancaster.ac.uk/wellbeing.”

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