The mother of a second year MPharm student is calling for better duty of care by universities after her daughter died by suicide after receiving the wrong exam results.
Mared Foulkes, aged 21, died on July 8 2020 just as she finished her second year studying for the MPharm at Cardiff University.
The university apologised for where it “did not get things right” and highlighted changes it has made to its processes, while the pharmacy regulator praised the “dignity and bravery” of Mared’s parents.
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On the morning of her death, Mared received her examination results “indicating that she had ‘not successfully completed this year/stage of her programme of study’” but it was “revealed after her death that she had successfully completed the year”, according to the coroner’s report published in November 2021.
Her mother Iona told C+D last month (November 18) that the “wording on exam results was totally inadequate” and “there should be a contact number for the student to contact immediately” if they receive a fail.
She said that Mared was wrongly told that she “could not progress to the third year”.
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“[The university] should have checked and re-checked all failed results, especially those students who had constantly passed previous exams,” she added.
“This was pure negligence, human error. It should never, ever have happened,” she told C+D. “Our daughter would still be alive if they’d done their work properly.”
“Capable of appearing misleading”
The coroner’s report into Mared’s death said that Cardiff University’s “sharing of examination results and how examinations are marked is complex, confusing and at times capable of appearing misleading”.
Mared had failed one of her units but had completed a resit by the time she received her examination results, it added.
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She passed the resit, but the mark was to “be ratified in the September exam board round in accordance with the university’s policy”, so the results she received in July 2020 wrongly indicated “that she had not successfully completed the year”, it said.
The coroner added that there was “no system in place for personal tutors to contact students ahead of the release of failed examination results, especially in vulnerable students”.
“Distressing information”
Iona is now campaigning for new “duty of care” legislation, saying that the “alarming rate” of student suicides will continue “unless the government takes a more active involvement within these educational establishments”.
She has contributed to a report published in August by For The 100 - a campaign group set up by bereaved families to have universities take on a statutory duty of care for students – which was sent to MPs both in parliament and the Welsh Senedd in September.
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In the report, Iona revealed that before the inquest into Mared’s death, she was “warned that towards the end of the university’s 381-page submission was distressing information about Mared’s contact with the Student Health and Wellbeing Service”.
This included details that her daughter had attended the service in November 2019 to “seek techniques to help her to manage self-harm” as she had “engaged in self-harm from the age of 15/16 and had not previously sought support for it”, according to the report.
“This information had been withheld from us and yet was advanced by the university’s barrister as a motivational explanation,” Iona said, adding that it had not been shared with Mared’s personal tutor either.
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Iona is calling for universities to introduce an opt-out scheme where students would have to opt out of the university contacting their parents if there are welfare concerns.
“[Universities] need to be more open with parents, not hide behind legislation that 18-year-old students are adults and therefore they cannot or will not answer questions of concern,” she told C+D.
And she said that the university’s handling of Mared’s death was “shabby” and “an added pain to bereaved parents”.
“We are very sorry”
A Cardiff University spokesperson last month (November 29) told C+D that it understood calls for an opt-out scheme but that “universities need to balance the legitimate needs of parents to be informed about their children while respecting the rights, privacy and wishes of adult students”.
They added that the university had put a new system in place asking students to provide a “trusted contact” when they enrol who will be contacted if there are “serious concerns about [their] health or wellbeing”.
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“Importantly, in exceptional circumstances, where there are significant risks and/or serious concerns about the wellbeing of a student, the trusted contact will be contacted without the express consent of the student,” they told C+D.
The spokesperson stressed that while this is “not an opt-out system”, the university will “continue to review this”.
In a previous statement issued in 2022, Cardiff University said that it “[recognised] that the process for confirming and releasing the results of [its] resit exams during the year could be complex and confusing”.
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“As a result, all available results will be confirmed…in June from now on” so students “will know the results of all the assessments they have taken” including resits, it said, adding that it was also “determined to improve the tone and language of all [its] written communications” to students.
“We are very sorry that the family feels that we have shown a lack of sympathy – that was never our intention,” the spokesperson added.
“We know the family feels we could have done things differently and we have apologised for where we did not get things right,” they said.
“Dignity and bravery”
Meanwhile, GPhC chief executive Duncan Rudkin last week (December 2) said that he has “personally met with” Mared’s parents and that the regulator’s “sympathies remain with the Foulkes family around the tragic circumstances of the death of their daughter”.
“I greatly admire the dignity and bravery her parents have continued to show in striving to ensure such a tragedy doesn’t happen again,” he added.
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He told C+D that the GPhC has “discussed the important issues raised as a result of this distressing incident with the University of Cardiff to ensure the pharmacy school meets standards for initial education and training, including providing support for student pharmacists”.
The GPhC approved Cardiff University for part one of its MPharm reaccreditation in 2023.
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