Are queer students getting enough support at university?
LGBTQIA+ people are significantly more likely to report poor mental health during higher education. Here, former and current students speak out.
WORDS BY JAMIE WINDUST HEADER BY YOSEF PHELAN TW: This article contains discussions of mental health and mention of suicide which some readers may find distressing. When you’re a teenager, you spend your life dreaming about life outside of the confines of polyester shirts and claustrophobic classrooms.
When the merry-go-round of standardised exams finally stops, for some, the next logical step is to take a loan from the government to spend three years slouched in a brutalist library with ick-inducing fluorescent lighting.
Yes, we’re talking about university. And while higher education – whether it’s university, art college, drama school or whatever else you wind up applying for – is often hyped up in TV and film as some of the best years of your life, the reality can be far from it.
