Create statutory legal duty of care for students in Higher Education
The Parliament petitions site records 128,292 signatures for this petition, which closed on 19 March 2023. The Government responded on 20 January 2023. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 5 June 2023.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Create statutory legal duty of care for students in Higher Education
No general statutory duty of care exists in HE. Yet, a duty of care is owed to students, and the Government should legislate for this. HE providers should know what their duty is. Students must know what they can expect. Parents expect their children to be safe at university.
The mental health, safety and well-being of HE students should be a Government priority. Student engagement, retention and success should be another. Both are indisputably linked to the duty of care students receive.
A duty of care already exists for staff, and for students under the age of 18 in HE. There should be parity in duty of care for all members of the HE community.
This is not a petition for ‘in loco parentis’ or for duplication of the NHS. We only seek parity and legislative clarity on duty of care for all students.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 20 January 2023; the petitions site lists the Department for Education as responsible. Its summary:
Higher Education providers already have a general duty of care not to cause harm to their students through their own actions.
The response in full:
Higher Education providers do have a general duty of care to deliver educational and pastoral services to the standard of an ordinarily competent institution and, in carrying out these services, they are expected to act reasonably to protect the health, safety and welfare of their students. This can be summed up as providers owing a duty of care to not cause harm to their students through the university’s own actions.
Over the last decade, higher education providers have devoted considerable resources to their student support services, and a good deal of support is now widely provided to students who struggle with their mental health. However, tragically suicides do still occur in higher education, and investigations into the circumstances of such deaths have sometimes shown the support offered by the university was not all it might have been. We have encouraged universities to learn from such cases and redouble their prevention efforts. Former Higher Education Minister Donelan wrote to vice chancellors specifically on this subject in both July 2021 and December 2021.
We acknowledge the profound and lasting impact a young person’s suicide has upon their family and friends, and know among the petitioners there are those who have personal experience of these devastating, tragic events. While press narratives often suggest students are an at-risk population, ONS data May 2022 (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/articles/estimatingsuicideamonghighereducationstudentsenglandandwalesexperimentalstatistics/2017to2020) shows a significantly lower suicide rate in HE students compared with the wider population (including students) of similar age. This is supported by Figure 6 from the linked ONS publication, and the third bullet point at the top of the page. We, therefore, feel further legislation to create a statutory duty of care, where such a duty already exists, would be a disproportionate response.
Department for Education
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 1,970, came from Westmorland and Lonsdale.
126,936 of the signatures were from the UK and 1,356 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Westmorland and Lonsdale | 1,970 |
| Carlisle | 1,323 |
| Penrith and The Border | 1,288 |
| Barrow and Furness | 1,022 |
| Workington | 1,018 |
| Rushcliffe | 955 |
| Copeland | 935 |
| Tunbridge Wells | 818 |
| Maidstone and The Weald | 770 |
| Morecambe and Lunesdale | 645 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| South East | 23,636 |
| North West | 23,325 |
| London | 12,917 |
| South West | 12,269 |
| East of England | 11,302 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 9,453 |
| East Midlands | 8,955 |
| West Midlands | 8,566 |
| Scotland | 5,516 |
| North East | 5,501 |
| Wales | 3,531 |
| Northern Ireland | 932 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 5 June 2023. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/622847.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
c877861b44e20e62… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.