Unis with excellent pastoral care

[pasta]

Hallo, I have two questions. The first is any steer on which universities have really excellent pastoral care for an ND child with a history of poor mental health. They are super bright and ambitious, but realistically, there is likely to be a crash at some point. This is for a STEM subject tbc. We are based in the south, so ideally not too far north.

The second is, what exactly should we be asking about on open days to establish this? I would love some advice on good questions so that we can make an informed decision.

Feeling a bit at sea with this, so I'd be v grateful for any advice.

Avoid the so called 'top' universities who often have poor support for MH problems in the first place. Had some dealings with Lancaster and was super impressed - teen I knew with similar issues as you have described, and they were amazing, he already knew his support worked before he ever set foot in the place.

This is a dilemma, OP. University students need to be able to advocate for themselves in order to thrive. Do you think taking a gap year would help your YP learn to confidently ask for the help that they will need?

In STEM there is sometimes a reluctance to grant requests for a gap year, for fear that the maths will be lost. If the applicant can show a plan for keeping up with maths and any other key subject (eg chemistry is studying chemistry or chemical engineering) often this can be got around.

Regardless, I am interested in the Lancaster recommendations as Lancaster is rapidly becoming a top university in several STEM subjects! It’s now part of the
‘Russell Group +’ together with Bath and one or two others.

But if the local uni is good I agree there is a great deal to be said for it. Best wishes to DC.

This is all really helpful. There is no way DC could advocate for themselves now, which makes me really nervous even for a home university. A year out is definitely something to think about if we can find something for them to do.

My son developed severe anxiety attacks at uni. He was at York and they swing into action with pastoral care, counselling, emergency GP. They were very good although I appreciate York may because bit far north. It is a campus university though with a collegiate system so it's fairly contained with everything you need on campus. Good transport links into York which is also a small compact city. It might be worth looking for something similar nearer to your home.

Loughborough has very good pastoral support and is also good in STEM. DS1 graduated from there and although thankfully we had no personal experience of the support I know some of his friends did and were helped a lot. It’s also collegiate although may already be a little far north for you. However it is quite a high ranking university and because of its sports facilities does tend to attract a lot of very outgoing and confident students so you would need to assess carefully whether it might be the right environment for your child.

Yes, OP - as a STEM academic I have always heard great things about the support at L, also Sheffield of course

Loughborough isn’t collegiate. It is a good university. It’s small and campus based so can feel more of a community.

Even if a university has good systems in place (big if, support systems are overwhelmed at most universities), a lot will depend on who your DC has teaching them in any given semester, who their personal tutor is etc. Some academics are better than others at the pastoral support side of things and it can be very easy to slip through the cracks.

I would recommend keeping her close to home so you can provide that support and keep an eye.

Uni is not school; the young person has to reach out, determinedly to get through the web forms to ask for support, explain the reasons why and wait for a callback. If they are on campus, there is often a 'manned' room at certain hours/days for drop-ins. Frankly (as a student who has just completed Uni) pastoral support is a function they fulfil, use newsletters to ask people to reach out and cover the very basics to toe the line. In my Uni, one student unlived (young person language) another in the last 12 months, and the Uni support was horrifically poor for anyone that needed it. It was more about reputation management and ticking the boxes, handing out ECs.

An excellent point. This is just one reason why it is a good idea for vulnerable DC to declare their special needs ahead of arrival, to their School.

Many Schools, such as mine, will give them a good PT or else arrange brief check in meetings with a Student Support Officer or similar. It also gives the School time to organise necessary mitigations for the beginning of term

I think this is the best advice to be honest. I work in a uni with good pastoral care and I had a tutee a few years ago that I feared may kill himself at any time. He was working with our welfare support team, I had weekly meetings with him and he had a GP that was working with him.

But he moved to another country, lost his support network and no amount of good welfare was going to change that. He got hospitalised in his home country just before his first year exams and decided with the support of his family and doctor at home that the best thing was for him to move home and complete his degree in a local uni and I couldn't have agreed more.

Some kids may cope but the moving away at 18 can be massively stressful on its own

Yes, collegiate was the wrong word probably, but it’s certainly very “tribal”. There is a lot of on-campus accommodation and a lot of people can stay on in that accommodation for their second or even third year (that might quite suit the OP as it can be easier than rushing to make friends and find a second year house early in the academic year as seems to be the way at so many unis). Each of the halls is run by student committee and right from the off there are a lot of in-house events in each accommodation and also a lot of Inter house competitions. Depending on which accommodation you choose, it can be a gentler introduction to uni life than a more urban uni.

Avoid RG as they recruit far too many students to do personal tutoring.

My very strong STEM school in an RG uni has an excellent PT system. I have also met weekly with students when necessary

Dc at Warwick had a good PT.

UCLAN is good at support.

Ask the question at open day about how to access and what support is available.

Disability Services should be available on open days for students and parents to talk to. Ask them what the process is for getting an individualised learning plan or equivalent and what reasonable adjustments might be included in this. Extra time to submit assignments and in exams, individual/small group room for exams, recording lectures, adjustments to presentations, assistive software etc. should all be easily available. Some unis will also offer study skills tutors - who can support with organising time, getting started on assignments, planning etc if these are challenges the student experiences. Mental health support may also be available. Unis with a focus on support will generally aim to get an individualised plan underway before term starts so that everything is in place in good time. Students who struggle with managing appts at uni can give permission for parents to be involved and may support parents to attend appts via Teams if the student wishes. If you child struggles to articulate things and you’re not allowed to attend, support them to write a script in advance so that they just have to read it/can hand it over. Don’t be worried about asking questions - the uni can guide you regarding the information it can/can’t share with you.

I was going to suggest Lancaster, although its pretty far North.
Its DD's 2nd choice but I secretly hope she ends up there as we were blown away with the friendliness and support offered from Open day onwards.
DD is taking a slightly unusual path and the Head of Dept at Lancaster gave her guidance both in person and by email before she even applied for Uni and when she did he came and found us at the Offer Holder Day to say hello.
Everyone else has been great too.
The only reason its not her first choice is that another Uni offers something in their course that she is really interested in but she has said that she would be very happy at Lancaster if she ended up there.

My advice (as a university lecturer) would be to encourage your DC to engage with the disability officer early doors and to disclose potential issues to lecturers as soon as they know there might be a problem.
In terms of universities I'd look at:
Do they have a disability office & what are they like?
Does the department they are going to answer your questions well?
Is the environment easy to navigate?
Can they get home in a crisis?
I work at Imperial and would say it is good in this regard, we have a large number of ASD students. However, as lecturers we won't know there's a problem unless the student or the disability office let us know. At that point we can make reasonable adjustments.
I hope your DC has a great time at uni and you don't stress too much!

Tbh I would double check that they wanted to put themselves through three years of significant pressure and incur £45k of debt if their disabilities and MH are so challenging.

Would in-work training, like an apprenticeship or degree apprenticeship be of interest?

Thank you all, really good advice. I think keeping them near/at home so that they can come whenever they need as a bit of a safety valve is a good idea. I can imagine them not being able to articulate that they were stressed but heading home anyway, which is totally doable if they are only 50 mins or so away.