Shall we collectively eliminate student deaths through suicide?
Hazel Shearing’s BBC article reported that the UK government has told English universities to ‘step up’ and do more to prevent student suicides.
The implication that in order for universities to ‘act responsibly’ now requires Government mandate is testimony to widespread sub-optimal paradigms. (A paradigm is the unconscious framework which drives all of our decisions and actions).
Governmental, University, social and our own individual paradigms all contribute to these fatalities:
1. Governmental paradigms
a. Government wants to make the responsibility for contributing to the mental health care of students someone else’s problem.
Government is especially well placed to look at prevalent social paradigms and provide relevant education to improve health. More positive examples include governmental education about smoking and Aids. Sadly, it seems action can only be taken when the cost of the problem has escalated sufficiently to become a significant driver.
Does it seem very responsible to take no action until the pain of the problem lands on yourself?
b. The governments’ predisposition to hide behind reports. As with many other situations such as Grenfell, and the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry, reporting significantly delays any benefit to the people who were impacted by the content included in the report.
Would it be more useful for the government to act more proactively to inform people about how to improve their mental health?
2. University paradigms
A key inhibitor to progress is lack of finance – in reality this is a completely mythical notion. A 2025 investigation by the Times revealed that on average UK universities have increased their spending on mental health by 73% over five years.
But if you think about universities’ responsibility it lies in equipping people with qualifications to help them make progress in life. The university paradigm is that this equipment comes in the form of academic degrees.
With the notable exception of students who have attended medical school the vast majority of employees I speak with report that once they start work they have little or no use whatsoever for the vast majority of content of their degree.
Historically, universities were responsible for developing human intelligence. Does it seem more intelligent to provide human beings with an academic ‘tick in the box’ or with mental strengthening to improve their experience for the rest of their lives?
3. Social paradigms
We have succeeded when we have ‘stopped the problem’ – this is a comprehensively counter-productive aspect of our societal paradigm.
If we deploy all our efforts to remedy ‘the problem’ we are only going to return people to a pre-existing sub optimal status quo. If someone doesn’t make a decision to kill themselves, does it mean that they are in a good psychological condition?
Would we be better off enabling everyone to transcend their psychological difficulties and enabling them to find a purposeful sense of direction?
4. Our own individual paradigms
Responsibility lies with someone else
For decades I have known that achieving social solutions lies in part in our willingness to take personal responsibility for contributing to the relief of our social problems.
Many years ago I met a very depressed PhD student. An hour or so of conversation enabled him to adapt his paradigm and regain his sense of perspective. As our meeting ended he asked me to go to Exeter university and provide the same uplifting service to other PhD students who he explained “were having thoughts about cutting themselves or killing themselves.”
I contacted Exeter university who suggested a solution was not necessary because they suggested they had a phone number which distressed students could call. The response time of the call centre was often three days. It seemed unlikely to me that a student in deep distress or considering ending their own life would be well served by a three day wait.
Gaining greater collaboration from the students with the mental health difficulties I provided a pro bono mental fitness programme Optimising Your Own Performance (OYOP).
For those in most intense distress or who had failed to find psychological relief either from inside or outside the university I provided paradigm-centred coaching. Outcomes in Exeter University alone include:
- Better decisions and mental clarity to support achieving ambitions
- Stops self-harming after 15 years of failing with alternatives
- Relief of panic attacks and the motivation to carry on
It probably is true to say that actions speak louder than words…
All students can access pro bono paradigm-centered coaching. Results from paradigm-centered coaching for students can be found here.
If you would like to understand about how to improve your own mental health you can join a free Power Your Mind mental fitness session.
If you would like to develop the paradigm-centered coaching skillset and contribute more to other people you can attend the Paradigm Centred Coaching and Consulting webinar.
