Loss and Learning: Navigating Grief at University (Online panel)

About the event

When her mother died while she was at university, Melanie Wolff felt like she was hit by a ‘hurricane’ of frustration, pain and other feelings that she struggled to name. Bereaved university students can find it difficult to manage their grief alongside academic and social pressures, especially if living away from home for the first time. There are approximately 280,000 bereaved students in the UK every year, so what are the best ways to support grieving students and reduce their sense of isolation?

This panel will explore the challenges of grieving at university – and consider ways to improve support for students and staff. It will be facilitated by Anna May, who founded the Student Grief Network after the deaths of her brother and dad, and is now Head of Grief Programmes with Kaplan International. She will be joined by Nivaetha D., a recent psychology graduate who wrote her dissertation on the experiences of bereaved international students; and Theo Silberston, founder of Life After, a podcast sharing the stories of young adult grievers. Both Nivaetha and Theo experienced loss while studying at university.

The panel will also launch the Higher Education Bereavement Framework, a brand-new tool to improve bereavement support developed by Anna May in collaboration with university students and staff.

Image credit: Jasmine Potter, @jazz_potter09