Nottinghamshire family launch campaign to make universities safer
They're calling for all higher education institutions to have an official duty of care to their students.
A bereaved family from Nottinghamshire are launching a campaign, calling on the government to ensure all universities have a legal duty of care to their students.
It's following the death of their daughter Natasha.
She took her own life at the University of Bristol back in 2018, the day she was due to give a presentation to fellow students and staff in a 329-seat lecture theatre.
A judge ruled earlier this year that the University of Bristol helped cause the death of the second-year physics student by breaching its duties under the Equality Act.
This included failing to make reasonable adjustments to the way the University treated Natasha on account of her social anxiety disorder.
Natasha's parents, Margaret and Robert Abrahart, have launched a parliamentary petition, calling on ministers to establish legislation to better protect students.
They say universities should owe a legal duty to exercise reasonable care and skill when teaching students and providing support services.
Today (SEPT 7TH) marks the official launch of their Statute for Student Safety campaign.
They believe that many student suicides are preventable and higher education institutions should do more to keep students safe.
Margaret tells us:
“While Natasha’s needless death will always remain a tragic waste of life and something we’ll never overcome, we’ve always been steadfast in our determination not to let it be totally in vain.
“We were able to win our case, and to get some justice for Natasha, because she was a disabled person as defined by the Equality Act.
"However, the lack of a more general duty of care means that many other students are still at risk and need to be protected.
"Families are also likely to find it very difficult to get justice if the student in question is not disabled. That just doesn’t seem right.”
Robert added:
“Although the judge in our case found that the University caused Natasha’s death by discriminating against her, he said he couldn’t find that the University was negligent because it didn’t owe Natasha a ‘common law duty of care’.
"This is liable to create confusion amongst students, universities and parents.
"There needs to be greater clarity on the duties universities owe to all students, particularly when providing support for mental health problems.
“This is not just about ‘picking up the pieces’ after something goes wrong.
"It is about acting with reasonable care and skill from the very start.
"Providing support to students when they become unwell is obviously important, but it is equally important to ensure that you avoid causing unnecessary distress, and do what is required to help prevent students from becoming unwell in the first place.
“We’ve repeatedly called on the University of Bristol to sit down with us, to learn from what happened to Natasha, and put in place the changes they need to make in order to keep students like her safe. But nobody seems to be listening, and our offer still hasn’t been taken up.
"We believe what happened to Natasha wasn’t an isolated incident and too many families with loved ones at universities across the country are being failed.
“Given the current situation we feel the only way to improve student safety is for there to be clear laws and practices in place which universities need to be measured against.
"We believe this will ensure universities are upholding their moral duty to protect students, many of whom are hundreds of miles away from home for the first time.”
Gus Silverman a human rights lawyer who represented Robert and Margaret, as well as the families of other students who have taken their lives, said:
“The judgment in Natasha’s case highlighted the lack of legal protections for students who don’t benefit from the Equality Act.
"As the law presently stands it is difficult to hold a university legally accountable where it has caused a student harm by behaving unreasonably, unless the student was disabled and the claim meets the Equality Act’s procedural requirements.
"Although each case must be judged on its individual merits, the absence of a legal duty independent of the Equality Act will very likely prevent some students and their families from accessing justice.”
In a statement, the University of Bristol said:
"Our whole university community has been deeply affected by Natasha's tragic death and we would once again like to extend our sympathies to her friends and family.
"Like all universities, schools and colleges, we are deeply concerned by the increase of mental health issues amongst our young people nationally. We do our very best to support any student who is struggling with their mental health and have a wide range of services available.
"We believe staff in the School of Physics worked incredibly hard and diligently to support Natasha during her time with us, and it was due to their efforts that she was receiving specialist mental health support from the NHS."