Survey comes shortly after ONS figures show student suicides in England and Wales are at their highest level since 2007
The pressures of studying architecture are taking “a shocking toll” on the mental health of students, a new survey has revealed.
More than half of students studying the course have expressed concerns about their mental health, with a quarter of respondents admitting to either receiving or having received medical help as a direct result of studying the subject.
The survey of 450 UK-based students carried out by The Architects’ Journal asked, for the first time, about the emotional impact of completing the gruelling seven-year long course, revealing an increasing debt problem, a “widely-accepted culture of excessive working hours,” and concerns that courses are not preparing students for the world of work.
Other concerns to have emerged included respondents questioning the value of their courses, being asked to work for free by practices, and sexual - even racial - discrimination. One respondent said: “There is an obvious division between the indigenous ‘British’ students and the international students, especially when it comes to group work.”
Broken down, the results found female students were more susceptible to getting help; one in three women, or 29 per cent, said they’d gotten treatment, compared with just 23 per cent of men.
Luciana Berger, Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree and former shadow minister for mental health, told the Journal the results were “worrying,” adding how it is “vital” universities have support in place.”
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A staggering 63 per cent of students also told specialist student loan lender, Future Finance, that they are worrying about their finances all the time or very often, something which is set to rise with the news tuition fees are to be raised beyond the current £9,000 a year. Shortly after this survey, figures from the ONS revealed the number of student suicides across England and Wales to have soared to their highest level since 2007; there were 130 suicides among both nations’ full-time students aged 18 and over in 2014, with the number considerably higher among men (97). In In 2007, there were 75 suicides.