Exclusive report from Nightline sheds the light on student mental health in Europe and France

Nightline is an association managed by volunteer students with the support of professionals offering a listening service to students. Nightline Europe includes national Nightlines, including Nightline France. The association was created in France in 2017, and offers now a listening service in all major university cities. In addition to its listening line, Nightline also works to improve student mental health “by working both at individual and overall scale, and on the student environment”.

More mental health issues

In this spirit, with the aim of “learn the lessons to act more efficiently”, Nightline presents its exclusive report based on around 15,000 calls and/or convos recorded over nine months of the 2023-2024 academic year by trained volunteer students across the 29 Nightlines network members in five countries (Austria, France, Germany, Ireland and the UK).

The association explains that data “offer a unique insight into the needs of students and the factors contributing to their unhappiness”. Figures extracted from the European University Association and used by Nightline show that 40% of students in the European Union are experiencing difficulties relating to their well-being or mental health, and one in five students is thought to be suffering from a mental health problem. 

More specifically, of the 15,000 calls analysed by Nightline on a European scale, 10.28% were calls relating to suicide. The percentage rises to 16.20% in France: the rate of suicidal thoughts among 18-24 year-olds in France rose by 218% between 2014 and 2021, with a “higher prevalence among racialised, LGBTQIA+, insecure or disabled students”, the press release points out. Over the past academic year, “volunteers received on average 1.57 times more calls and texts about suicide in France than among the 29 European branches that are members of the Nightline Europe network”.

A multitude of risk factors 

Nightline Europe also reveals that France “stands out as having the highest percentage of calls in the categories relating to loneliness and homesickness (16%) and precariousness and accommodation (10%)”. According to Nightline, France also stands out “for calls relating to physical and psychological violence (4%)”. Similarly, France is closely behind the UK in terms of calls relating to sexual violence.

Another factor is “academic stress”, also declared by students as a major cause of calls. Nightline points out that all students face “pressure to succeed academically”. In addition, “many are away from home for the first time, without their usual support networks such as family or friends, and may therefore feel lonely or isolated”. This would also be the case for international students who, again according to Nightline, “face cultural or linguistic barriers that hinder their integration and well-being”. And Nightline concludes: “young people, and students in particular, are at the crossroads of a pivotal period of development and self-building and a host of specific risk factors”.

Recommendations for decision-making politicians

More than these “worrying findings”, Nightline Europe provides recommendations “to encourage political decision-makers to work with key players such as higher education institutions and civil society organisations”. The aim of common work is to “better understand and reverse trends in poor student mental health across Europe”. Recommendations include:

• intensify action throughout the solidarity chain, “by acting at the root of the underlying determinants”;
• step up awareness-raising and prevention, by supporting early detection at all levels;
• harmonise the indicators collected by the European network of voluntary counsellors to refine data on student distress on a European scale;
• define an “inter-ministerial, multi-annual strategy that would enshrine well-being and mental health as the cornerstone of public policy”;

In short, according to Nightline, “inaction is not an optioné”.