Students who report a mental health condition are more likely to drop out of higher education, less likely to progress into skilled work or further study, and graduate with a first or 2:1 – compared to students without a declared mental health condition, a new report by the Office for Students shows today.
The new Insight brief ‘Mental health: Are all students being properly supported?’, highlights the gaps in outcomes between students with declared mental health conditions and those without, and shows how factors such as ethnicity and social disadvantage impact those gaps.
Drawing on data from the OfS access and participation dashboard, the brief shows that in 2016-17, 87 per cent of students with declared mental health conditions continued their studies after their first year, compared to 90 per cent of all undergraduates.
Among students who graduated in 2016-17, 69 per cent of those with declared mental health conditions progressed into skilled work or further study compared to 73 per cent of all undergraduates. In 2017-18, graduates who had reported a mental health condition were less likely to be awarded a first or 2:1.
New analysis for the report also shows that:
- Among part-time students, those who came from the most deprived areas were most likely to report having a mental health condition, while those from the least deprived were least likely to do so.
- Black students with a declared mental health condition have some of the lowest continuation and attainment rates. In 2017-18, 53 per cent of black students with a reported mental health condition graduated with a first or 2:1, compared to 77 per cent of all students reporting a mental health condition. In 2016-17, 87 per cent of students with mental health conditions continued their studies after their first year – for black students the rate was 77 per cent.
Overall, the proportion of full-time students in England declaring a mental health condition has more than doubled in the last five years, from 1.4 per cent in 2012-13 to 3.5 per cent in 2017-18. Female students were more than twice as likely to report having a mental health condition than male students. In 2017-18, 4.7 per cent of female students declared a mental health condition, compared to 2 per cent of male students.