Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
An anti-nuclear march in London in 1981.
An anti-nuclear march in London in 1981. Calls to Nightline reflect the times in which students are living. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock
An anti-nuclear march in London in 1981. Calls to Nightline reflect the times in which students are living. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

How student anxiety evolved: from nuclear war to sexual violence

This article is more than 3 years old

As Nightline, the student phoneline, turns 50, it is helping more young people than ever, but their worries have changed

As a first-year maths student at the University of Manchester in 2014, Josh Fogg went through a mental health crisis. “I was having a really bad case of depression and anxiety,” Fogg says.

One night, when things came to a head, Fogg remembered a card from a friend with a phone number on it. “I’d not really thought much about it, but the number was on the back of our student cards and I gave them a ring.” That call made a huge difference. “I didn’t say much but the volunteer on the other end just sat there with me while I was really struggling. I think knowing that someone was there inspired hope.”

The number Fogg had called was Nightline, the student-run listening service, which celebrates its 50th birthday this month. The helpline, inspired by the non-judgmental ethos of the Samaritans, is provided by trained student volunteers who stay up overnight to take calls, messages and visits from students who want to talk about their problems.

For Fogg, who identifies as non-binary, the first call turned into several, over the course of which they became more comfortable opening up and eventually gained the confidence to seek professional help. “A big part of me wonders whether I would still be here if there hadn’t been someone there that first night. I was in a very bad mindspace at the time and really didn’t see another way out.”

Fogg is one of thousands of students to benefit from Nightline’s support since it was founded at the University of Essex in 1970, following a series of student suicides. Anne Hosking, who was among the first student volunteers, recalls the idea coming from a fellow student who had accepted a constant stream of distressed acquaintances through her door after developing a reputation for being a good listener.

With support from a chaplain involved in the Samaritans and a lecturer (who became Hosking’s husband), the students set themselves up in a prefab hut left by construction workers at the then new university. Hosking herself took the first call.

While many of the themes then feel familiar now – exam stress, isolation and depression – others reflected the times students were living in. “The big drug worry was LSD and people tripping,” Hosking recalls. “And back then there was the fear of nuclear war.”

Josh Fogg: ‘A big part of me wonders whether I would still be here if there hadn’t been someone there that first night.’ Photograph: Sam Varley-Stephens

Fifty years later, Nightline is both much the same and very different. It expanded beyond Essex to 39 nightlines across the UK and Ireland, with 2,951 student volunteers reaching 1.6 million of their peers. The service is still run and staffed by students, but there is a more professional approach with sophisticated training programmes, as well as a popular option for instant messaging.

What has changed most is the content of calls. Since the #MeToo movement started in 2017, there has been a yearly rise in the number of calls relating to sexual violence and harassment. Nightline has also observed a rise in calls relating to suicide, mirroring rising rates among young people across the UK.

Graham Towl, a professor at Durham University, became involved in Nightline as a student in the 1980s. He recalls mostly listening to worries from those who feared they would not get a 2:1, or a first, since the proportion of students awarded those grades was lower than today. “The 80s were a very competitive time,” he says.

One of the big changes he has seen over the years is the way the language of mental health has broadened beyond serious conditions to include general wellbeing. He thinks Nightlines have got busier as a result. “It’s shifted focus away from suicide and depression towards anxiety, especially exam-related.” The accompanying reduction in stigma around mental health has helped students feel more comfortable about coming forward.

There has been widespread media coverage of the student mental health crisis in recent years, with statistics showing a fivefold increase in mental health problems since 2010. One 2019 survey, the largest so far, found that one-third of students had experienced a serious psychological issue for which they required professional help.

Emma Meehan, a student who runs the Nightline at Exeter University, thinks universities have been quick to respond with a wide range of support services. “Definitely within the uni there’s been a lot more talk about mental health,” she says.

Anne and Geoffrey Hosking. She took the first call for Nightline at Essex University, 50 years ago. Photograph: Katya Hosking

But she suspects that increased debt and a competitive labour market are contributing to students’ fears. “The way the student experience is evolving, and everything that comes with it, is incredibly anxiety-provoking and intense,” she says. “The pressure put on us – and which we put on ourselves – to perform is draining.”

That pressure is social as well as academic, she adds. “We’re a university with 22,000 students and everyone’s come from such different backgrounds. Not everyone fits into the mould of the perfect university student who’s had the best years of their lives. Trying to strive for that can be toxic.”

Most recently, Exeter’s helpline, like many others, has been deluged with calls relating to coronavirus. Jodie Ferris, a fellow volunteer, says these have evolved from initial worries about whether to return home or stay in halls, to concerns around exams and grades, and now struggles dealing with isolation (nationally, calls relating to loneliness have tripled).

“It’s difficult to support people through that when lots of volunteers don’t know the answers,” she says. “But it gives a sense of people being there for you.”

Student volunteers such as Ferris and Meehan give up huge amounts of their time to run the service, but they are adamant it is worth it. “Nightline has been a huge part of my uni experience, it means so much to me,” says Ferris. “Uni can be a really lonely time and to have somebody there whenever you need them in the night time is invaluable, but personally for me it’s about the people I’ve met.”

The service also equips its volunteers with skills for life. They are trained in active listening, which involves interpreting a speaker’s behaviour and reading between the lines, and is useful in a range of professions.

Charlotte Pelekanou, who, at seven-and-a-half years, is one of Nightline’s longest-standing volunteers, has used this skill to talk a girl out of suicide on a shift as a first aider at a gig. “When I started as a volunteer I was so shy,” she says. Now she leads training sessions attended by 140 volunteers and has rolled out instant messaging at her university. “All these skills helped me with my degree and gave me confidence.”

As Nightline celebrates 50 years, its chair of trustees, Emily Wheeler, is already thinking about how the next 50 will play out.

She’d like to see the service expanded to every university, ideally backed by a more predictable income stream than its annual £60-70,000 from grants and fundraising; staff members recruited for longer than their three-year degrees; and more recognition from university leaders. But as someone who self-harmed as a teenager and experienced panic attacks at university a decade ago, she understands there’s only one real mission: “to do yourself out of a job”.

To find your local Nightline number go to nightline.ac.uk. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org


More on this story

More on this story

  • Bereaved parents say review into student suicides in England is ‘slap in the face’

  • ‘It takes a mental toll’: students in England priced out of university towns

  • Campus lockdown: how to cope alone in university halls

  • Universities traumatise student sexual misconduct survivors by mishandling cases

  • University students more at risk of depression than non-students – study

  • Too few counsellors on campus: why students are turning to mental health apps

  • ‘I still can’t forgive them’: family’s anger at Exeter University after son’s suicide

  • Parents ‘horrified’ by response to petition after suicide of Bristol student

  • I'm striking because insecure academic contracts are ruining my mental health

  • ‘My hand shook so much I spilled my tea’: a guide for the introverted fresher

Comments (…)

Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion

Most viewed

Most viewed