Ben Faux

“About 5 years ago, following concerns from academic staff that they were not equipped to support students with welfare issues, Reading University stripped out the pastoral care function from the academic supervisor role, leaving only 'academic advisors/tutors'. There is alternative provision made for welfare but it is not part of the tutor role and students on taught research courses do not have named pastoral tutors”

“The nature of taught research courses (largely independent work) makes it more challenging to monitor students' engagement and identify issues at an early stage. [the deceased]'s difficulties with his academic work started after Christmas 2022 but were not addressed by the department until he raised them himself in March 2023 by which point he was at a crisis point”

“There is an established process for enforced suspension of studies and the University agreed that with hindsight [the deceased] was clearly not fit to study and should have been identified as such and put on that pathway instead of leaving it to [the deceased] to decide and take action to suspend his studies”

“5) By March 2023 [the deceased]'s department at Reading University knew that [the deceased] was a student with severe mental health concerns linked to management of his academic work, who had not taken any exam and had not completed sufficient research to file a dissertation and by late June they also knew that he had not completed paperwork to suspend his studies and yet: a. The University staff who knew this did not appear to appreciate what it meant for [the deceased] and his continuing risk of vulnerability; and b. There was no”

“Apart from brief further contact from the Student Support Centre re the suspension forms, no-one from the University contacted [the deceased] between 24 April 2023 and when he took his life on or around 5 August 2023”