Andrew Kirkman, 20, a bright, brilliant second-year Oxford undergraduate who killed himself in 2013, is just one of hundreds of UK students who have committed suicide in the past decade.
Depressed and struggling under his university workload, he managed to hide the extent of his pain from everyone but his girlfriend Clarissa, who recalls in a new BBC Three documentary that he told her he ‘wanted to die’.
Clarissa reveals Andrew ‘felt like a fake’ who was ‘falling short of the image that people had of him. He didn’t want to tell anyone else about his depression because he felt really ashamed.’
After receiving a recommendation from his Baliol College tutor to take medical leave from the prestigious university for a year, Andrew went on to take his own life.
His story is part of the film Death on Campus, which focuses on the growing number of students who have committed suicide due to mental health struggles while in higher education.
It comes after a recent study by think-tank IPPR revealed that suicide rates in British universities have reached an unprecedented high – nearly doubling in the last 10 years. In 2015 alone, 134 students took their own lives.
Most recently Bristol University faced scrutiny when a spate of student suicides occurred in the space of a year. The campus has now reportedly invested £1million on mental health professionals in a bid to help an increasing number of students battling with anxiety and depression.
Andrew Kirkman was a 20-year-old student at Oxford University. He had been struggling with the workload for his physics and philosophy degree
Andrew’s girlfriend, Clarissa (pictured), was the only person he confided in about his mental health but she told nobody for fear of putting him at risk
Andrew, from Hertfordshire, was just 20 when his body was found in a tent in a field in the city’s Port Meadow the day before he had been due to fly to Brazil to visit his girlfriend – the verdict of his death ruled poisoning.
His mother, Wendy, had no idea of the battle her son was going through because he had refused to let his doctor inform his parents of his mental well-being after a visit where he had been prescribed anti-depressants.
Andrew had, however, spoken at length to Clarissa – who lived in Brazil – about the way he was feeling.
But she was scared to tell anyone about his problems for fear the stigma and shame would put him at even greater risk.
Oxford University’s Balliol College where Andrew studied – his tutor had recommended he seek help from the GP
‘He told me that he felt like a fake and that he was falling short of the image that people had of him,’ she explained.
‘He told me he hadn’t been going to his lectures, skipping his tutorials, and he hadn’t been doing any work.
‘He was just staying in his bed all day and crying. He didn’t want to tell anyone else about his depression because he felt really ashamed.’
After falling behind with work, his tutor had suggested that he take a year off as medical leave, something which his mother said would have ‘devastated’ him.
Andrew’s mother Wendy was devastated to learn that her son had been treated for depression but she hadn’t been told. His friend Effie, who dropped out of Oxford, also struggled to cope at the university
Six Bristol and one UWE student took their own lives in the course of 12 months
James Thomson, 20, and Miranda Williams, 19, both believed to have committed suicide
First year student Daniel Green, 18, ‘took his life’ and was found hanging in his room at Goldney Hall on October 21 2016, and inquest heard.
Kim Long, an 18-year-old law student died of asphyxiation at his halls of residents on November 10 last year, and an inquest concluded he committed suicide.
Philosophy student Miranda Williams, 19, died from paracetamol poisoning on October 10 2016, and died three days later in hospital. Her inquest reached a conclusion of suicide.
Lara Nosiru, 23, a final-year neuroscience student was found dead in the Avon Gorge on January 30, this year. The coroner concluded she took her own life while under the influence of drugs.
Third year Elsa Scaburri, 21, was found hanged in a barn at a farm near her home near Salisbury on March 3 2017, after committing suicide, an inquest heard
First year student Sam Symons, 19, was studying law at the city’s University of the West of England (UWE) and was found in his room at a halls of residence. He died during the night of Sunday, April 30, or in the early hours of Monday, May 1, and an inquest concluded suicide.
Second year student James Thomson, 20, was found dead at his home in Bristol in October. Police officers have told Bristol University they believe he took his own life, and the case has now been referred to the coroner, according to the university.
In October Bristol University announced it has invested £1 million in 28 full-time ‘well-being’ advisers who will be embedded across faculties and departments.
Its head of student services, Mark Ames, said the issue is being taken very seriously with further work being undertaken at a national level across all universities to improve mental health services with more specialist staff and better communication.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that suicides among university students have risen by 50 per cent over the past ten years, to 144 in 2016.
Universities are reporting a 50 per cent rise in demand for their mental health services, while the number of students who abandon degrees due to mental illness has more than doubled to almost 1,200 in just five years, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
Andrew’s friend Effie, who remembers celebrating getting into Oxford with him felt equally under pressure with her studies, but she sought help and says she wished she’d spoken to him about her own depression.
‘I wish Andrew had known about me. I was feeling like this, and Andrew was feeling like this, and I could have at any point said: “Do you know what Andrew I am dropping out of university, I think I am depressed”.
‘That sort of sharing of stuff, if I had have done that maybe it would have changed things,’ she said.
Student Minds provides local support: www.studentminds. org.uk. Nightline is an all-night helpline run by students: nightline.ac.uk
For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123, visit a local branch or go to the website www.samaritans.org.
‘She suddenly went in a dark place’: Nursing student killed herself months after an overdose
Lucy de Oliveira, 22, killed herself in February of this year
Lucy de Oliveira, 22, killed herself in February of this year, weeks after splitting with her junior doctor boyfriend.
She sent a final heart-breaking text to him saying she ‘wanted it to end’. Her former lover, who was working at a hospital 60 miles away, alerted Miss de Oliveira’s flatmate, who went to check on her at their digs in Liverpool – but it was too late.
The student, who was on course for a first class nursing degree at Liverpool John Moores University, could not be saved.
Her mother Liz de Oliveira speaks about her daughter’s death in the BBC Three documentary.
‘She had been socialising a few hours earlier, and her friends didn’t think there was anything wrong. There were no warning signals.
‘I think it was something that happened quite suddenly, she went in a dark place.’
Lucy’s brother, who she was extremely close to, also wishes his sister had confided in him more.
‘She did call me and did say she was depressed. I always said “you can talk to me about anything” and she did. I guess maybe, I couldn’t save her.’
Her mother also discovered that her daughter had attempted an overdose just months before her death – her then boyfriend managed to stop her taking the pills, but no family member, doctor or social service official was told about the attempt.
Mrs de Oliveira said previously she was under financial pressure and had also started taking anti-depressants for a nervous ‘jerk’ or twitch. This prevented her carrying out her student work placements and only added to her anxiety because she feared she was falling behind her peers.
The split from her boyfriend was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back’.
BBC Three’s Death on Campus: Our Stories is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now