The study, Stretched at Both Ends: Pressure on Student Services and the Impact on Academic Staff at UK Universities, led by Gareth Hughes and colleagues, highlights a sector under immense strain. University student services across the UK are grappling with a significant rise in both the volume and complexity of mental health cases. With NHS services struggling to meet demand, universities are increasingly left as the only available support for students experiencing serious mental illness.

In interviews with 75 student service professionals across the UK, participants described a “tsunami of need” among students, with particularly sharp increases in anxiety, psychosis, and eating disorders. Many students now seek help only when they reach a point of absolute crisis, overwhelming campus services already stretched thin.

The Role of Academics: Between Care and Crisis

One of the study’s central concerns is the growing role academics are playing in student mental health, often without adequate training or institutional support. Some staff respond to any disclosure by immediately referring students to well-being services, driven by a fear of getting it wrong. Others attempt to manage student crises themselves, holding onto cases until they become too severe to contain, at which point students are transferred to support services already operating at critical capacity.

This dynamic, researchers warn, can lead to increased risk not only for students but also for academic staff and institutions. Academic staff are facing emotional strain, sleep disruption, and impacts on their home lives, while universities are exposed to legal and reputational risks if mental health crises escalate unchecked.

Financial Pressures and the Impact on Support

Compounding the crisis is the financial instability across the higher education sector. While some universities have increased their investment in mental health services, others have implemented cuts, widening the gap between growing demand and shrinking resources. Students facing course closures or staff reductions are reporting heightened anxiety, further fueling mental health challenges on campus.

The report also emphasises that student services are absorbing not only higher volumes of students but also students presenting with more complex and high-risk needs. Suicidal ideation, trauma, and comorbidity are on the rise , creating greater demands on under-resourced teams. At the same time, public NHS services are raising thresholds for support, effectively pushing severely ill students back onto universities for care they were never designed to deliver.

Clarifying Roles and Building Resilience

The findings point to an urgent need for a whole-university approach to mental health, a principle already enshrined in the University Mental Health Charter. This means not only investing in clinical services but ensuring academic staff are clearly trained on their roles, responsibilities, and boundaries.

Rather than ad-hoc responses by individual academics, the study calls for:

• Better training and support for academic staff,
• Clear protocols for referrals and safeguarding,
• A public commitment to resourcing student services appropriately,
• Proactive, preventive well-being strategies that reduce pressure on crisis support services.

Without these changes, the report warns, universities risk endangering both students and staff, eroding the learning environment, and undermining the broader educational mission.

As Gareth Hughes and his co-authors conclude: “There are students and former students today who are alive, successful, and flourishing because of the work of university support services. This is no small achievement, but it must not be left to goodwill alone to carry an unsustainable system.”