Vice-chancellor ‘happy to face court’ to save a student’s life

A vice-chancellor has insisted that he would rather “face court” than fail to help a student amid concerns that data protection rules are stymieing universities’ ability to intervene in crisis situations.

Describing his institution’s approach to suicide prevention, Steve West, vice-chancellor of the University of the West of England, said it asks students to provide “trusted contacts” who staff can contact should they have concerns about a person’s well-being.

Speaking at Times Higher Education’s Student Success UK&IE event at the University of Bath, West said the university has begun triggering this option far earlier than it would have done previously amid widespread concerns about the recent rise in the number of student suicides.

According to the Office for National Statistics, 1,108 students took their own lives between the academic years ending 2017 and 2023, equivalent to a rate of 6.9 deaths per 100,000 students.

“Often that’s the key to unlocking and helping an individual,” West said of the intervention, adding that taking this step still had to be “proportional”. Since the start of the academic year, West said the institution had already reached out to 50 to 60 trusted contacts.

“If you’d asked me that question 10 years ago, it would have been a very low number,” he said. “Prevention is better than waiting for something to deteriorate to the point where you’re making a different phone call.”

Addressing concerns that such an approach could break data protection or privacy laws – especially if the student in question is unaware their contact has been called – West said he was clear “we will act if we believe there is a risk to that individual’s life or another life”.

The v-c, who chairs a government-backed task force focused on student mental health, added: “If we’re not getting consent from that student, I don’t care. I want to be in court for the fact that somebody might have thought I’ve broken GDPR rather than I didn’t act…this is about doing the right thing at the right time for the right reasons for the right people.”

West said calling someone to say their loved one had died by suicide was one of the “hardest things I’ve has to do” as a vice-chancellor.

But he was clear that he did not think universities should face a statutory duty of care requirement when it comes to protecting students.

Parents of students who died by suicide have campaigned for this to be enshrined in law, arguing that current rules are inadequate at protecting students.

West, a former NHS podiatrist, said it was important to recognise that higher education providers “are not” and “should not be deliverers of clinical services”.

“That’s the job of the NHS,” West said, although he added that universities must accept “substantial” but “bounded” responsibility for student well-being.

Despite saying he did not personally believe a statutory duty of care was the way forward, the task force chair said his panel was constructing guideline standards related to student well-being.

Before the end of this academic year, West promised, the task force will produce “minimum expectations” for what universities and colleges ought to do to look after their students, working with the Office for Students.

Appearing alongside West, Izzy Watkins, programme manager at Student Minds, said her charity’s position was that: “Universities cannot and should not be expected to meet every student’s needs themselves but there is a responsibility to create environments that support well-being.”

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com