The number of Oxford students seeking counselling has doubled in a decade as growing numbers of the brightest young people look for help with mental illnesses and similar conditions.
Last year 1,070 undergraduates were referred to counselling services at the university, about 9 per cent of the total, as were 729 postgraduate students.
The actual number of students facing mental health pressures is likely to be higher because Oxford’s colleges have their own networks of welfare deans, doctors, nurses and chaplains who provide support before referring those who need it to the counselling service.
The figures illustrate the breadth as well as the scale of the mental health crisis engulfing Britain’s young people, which The Times has highlighted in a campaign calling for urgent improvements in treatment.
The University of Oxford said that feedback from students indicated that its counselling was good, that instances of mental illness among its students were on a par with those at other universities, and that the increase reflected a greater willingness among young people to ask for help.
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However, the number of its students seeking help shows that the highest-achieving teenagers can succumb to the pressures facing Britain’s youth.
The Times’s child mental health campaign, launched yesterday, calls for a new government study to quantify child and adolescent mental illness and to achieve parity of esteem between mental and physical health services.
Time to Mind advocates investment in the early detection of mental illness among the young, waiting lists of no longer than 18 weeks for non-urgent treatments, and more inpatient facilities to end the practice of holding young people facing a mental health crisis in police cells or adult wards.
Oxford released the figures after a freedom of information request from Belinda Phipps, whose daughter studied maths at Oxford but left in 2013. She had been a school friend of Andrew Kirkman, 20, who took his own life while studying at Balliol College.
Her daughter, whose name was withheld, told THE magazine that different approaches among colleges meant some students had “poor experiences”. “There is no united front from the university on it, which contributes to the really poor experiences of some students and the really good experiences of others,” she said.
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The figures showed that 453 Oxford undergraduates received counselling in 2003-04. After rising slightly and then falling in the two subsequent years, numbers increased and rose at a faster pace, from 803 in 2011-12 to 1,070 last year. During this period undergraduate numbers were stable, at around 11,700 students.
The numbers of postgraduate students receiving counselling grew from 268 in 2003-04 to 729 last year, although this coincided with a rapid growth in the number of postgraduate places, from 5,626 to more than 10,000.
Jeremy Christey, chairman of the universities and colleges section of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, told THE that Oxford did not “stand out as unusual” and that its rates of referral were in line with trends at other Russell Group universities.
A spokesman for the University of Oxford said: “The university has worked hard in recent years to increase awareness of emotional, psychological and mental health issues among students and to encourage them to seek help as soon as possible.
“The increase in students accessing the university’s professional counselling services shows they are more prepared to seek support and also that the university and colleges are identifying students with difficulties earlier.
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“We know this approach works — after using the counselling service the majority of students report they are less likely to withdraw from their course, feel better able to study and feel better equipped to seek future employment.”
Read The Times’ ten-point manifesto for child and adolescent mental health services and pledge your support to the campaign