Managing relationships, finances, time and healthy choices can be distressing for students.Credit: Getty
A mental-health emergency is brewing at universities across the world. Anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation and self-harm have all increased among undergraduates in the past decade, straining university resources (see ‘Mental illness on the rise’).
Almost two-thirds of students in a global survey1 of 72,288 first-year undergraduates said that they had experienced symptoms at some point in their lives consistent with at least one mental illness. These include mood disorders, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and substance use. More than half had reported symptoms in the past year.
The future of universities
Our research in Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom aligns with these trends2–4. Our experiences as academics, clinicians and advocates have shown us how untreated mental disorders can derail a person’s psychosocial and academic development. Much too often, this ends in tragedy.
Yet globally, only 28% of students who have a mental-health problem and who would benefit from support actually access it5 — with inequities for disadvantaged and at-risk groups. The proportion of students receiving help falls to just 14% in low- and middle-income countries, for example5. One study in the United States found that although the proportion of students with symptoms who sought help rose from 40.7% in 2013 to 50.2% in the 2020–21 academic year, the only statistically significant increase was in students of white ethnic background. Rates of seeking help among people of other ethnic groups remain mostly unchanged, despite increases in common mental-health conditions6.
Universities, together with governments, academics and health-care providers, must do more to develop coordinated, sustainable and effective mental-health support for the students in their care.
Source: The Healthy Minds Network
Reasons for the rise
University students are particularly prone to mental-health challenges. According to a 2025 report7 from the World Health Organization, mental disorders are rising fastest among those aged 20–29 years — the most-represented age group among undergraduates. Many factors play into this increase.
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