Our university’s namesake, former president Nelson Mandela, once observed that there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.
These words echo hauntingly loud in the higher education sector today. According to Higher Health, one in five students experiences a mental health disorder, and suicide is one of the leading causes of death among young people.
In this context, 2025 will forever be remembered as a year etched in indescribable grief for each of us as the Nelson Mandela University community. We lost many of our community members, including an unprecedented eight students, in the latter part of the year in circumstances ranging from natural causes and drowning to violent crime and suicide.
Each loss rippled through families, communities, classrooms and the council chamber, testing the limits of our collective resilience and forcing a hard reckoning with the conditions under which young people are expected to live, study and succeed.
Parents who send their children to university do so with layered hopes. They want their children to graduate, find meaningful work and improve their lives. They expect that, in addition to shaping socially productive, ethically grounded citizens who can contribute positively to society, universities will provide a safe environment and support systems for the wellbeing of their children.
Higher education is therefore not only an economic investment, but also a civic one. Universities are expected to provide an ecosystem in which students can thrive as they work towards their goals and transition into adulthood in safety.
Loss of life
But student vulnerabilities are diverse and do not arise in a vacuum. We increasingly must grapple with the fact that universities are unable to prevent certain harms and even loss of life.
Manifestations of vulnerabilities such as mental health, socioeconomic factors (financial stress and food insecurity), academic challenges and personal circumstances (trauma and discrimination) may emanate from deeply interconnected adverse socioeconomic ecosystems with origins far beyond university campuses.
Many students arrive at university carrying responsibilities that far exceed their tender years. Some are heads of households or primary breadwinners. Many live with hunger, debt, trauma or profound uncertainty about funding and accommodation. These realities may shape their academic performance, mental health, exposure to harm and propensity to cause harm to others.
South Africa’s post-1994 expansion of access to higher education, and the introduction of fee-free education in 2017, dramatically widened access to higher education. Enrolment growth, however, has not been matched by proportional increases in staffing, infrastructure, counselling services or social support. University staff are increasingly stretched as they respond to students’ escalating academic, social, physical and psychological needs.
Financial insecurity is the most corrosive stressor. An award-winning research study titled NSFAS-funded Students’ Financial Wellness Perceptions and Experiences as a Component of Holistic Wellbeing, by Mandela University’s Melodie Peters, documents the severe distress experienced by financially vulnerable students, including hunger and despair.
Delays in funding confirmations and rental payments to private accommodation providers expose students to eviction, mounting debt and future registration barriers. In some cases, students live in unsafe or unsuitable off-campus residences, aggravating the exposure to crime and gender-based violence.
Mental health service providers struggle to contain the cumulative impact of these pressures. At Mandela University, anxiety, depression, academic stress and relationship difficulties dominate student wellness consultations, sometimes presenting in cases of suicidal ideation and trauma-related distress.
Nationally, a 2025 annual report paints a disturbing picture of a systemic university sector crisis. The report identifies:
- Mental health among young people as a major public health priority worldwide with evidence that a high proportion of students experience psychosocial problems.
- Gender-based violence as unacceptably high across South Africa, with young women bearing the brunt of the scourge.
- HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as priority epidemics in South Africa among young people.
- Harmful use of alcohol and drugs as prevalent among students.
The contents of this report support the conclusions reached at Mandela University and are a reminder that universities are a microcosm of society.
Despite the challenges, universities carry an ethical duty of care to: create environments that are reasonably safe and conducive to academic excellence and personal development; identify and respond to foreseeable risks; provide emotional and psychological support; and to act when harm threatens. Universities bear this duty in partnership with parents, caregivers, the students themselves and the government.
However, the context in which universities discharge the in loco parentis role does not accord them absolute control over the lives of students. Students have agency and autonomy. Universities must balance their responsibility with treating students as independent, responsible adults.
It is also important that the limits of institutional power be acknowledged. Universities cannot fix broken housing arrangements, reform national policy and mental health systems, eradicate local crime or resolve household poverty.
What they can do is strengthen what lies within their control, while insisting on shared accountability beyond their institutions. Within this context, Mandela University, like many others, must continue to make significant investment in safety and security, including, for example, access control, CCTV expansion, armed response services, psychological and wellness support services and coordinated safety forums.
University councils and universities must deepen collaboration and the sharing of best practices between them in acknowledgement of the common challenges their communities face, which are widespread and endemic in the society in which they operate.
In law, university councils bear the ultimate responsibility for oversight, risk management and institutional sustainability. In a turbulent societal environment, more is required to adapt policies and strategy to meet the urgent challenges presented by the unabating scourge of gender-based violence, pervasive mental health challenges and acts of criminality.
Increased vigilance
The fiduciary role of university councils requires increased vigilance, to ensure that appropriate policies, resources and support systems are in place, to interrogate institutional readiness, and to hold management accountable for continuous improvement. They must also add their voice and legitimacy to positive advocacy efforts.
The painful events experienced by Mandela University during 2025 compel an incisive sector-wide, and perhaps an even broader, national conversation. Student wellbeing is not a peripheral concern or a line item in university strategic plans and budgeting. It is a public policy issue that sits at the intersection of higher education funding, housing, health, safety and social development.
A credible response requires coordinated action. The government must align funding cycles, student housing accreditation, payment systems and social services to reduce avoidable harm while working with universities to address safety in student-dense neighbourhoods. Policymakers must recognise that access without adequate support simply shifts risk onto the most vulnerable. Families and communities also remain indispensable partners in supporting young adults navigating independence.
We must redefine students’ success. Graduation cannot be the sole metric. Dignity and wellbeing are preconditions for generative learning and teaching, research and innovation.
Universities cannot carry the responsibility for the young people in their care alone. Nor should they be expected to.
Honouring the lives cut short in 2025, at Mandela University and other institutions of higher learning across the country, requires of all of us to insist that student wellbeing be a national priority, not after tragedy strikes, but as a foundational commitment to the future of higher education and to the wellbeing of young people entrusted to it. DM
Judge Nambitha Dambuza is the Chairperson of the Council of Nelson Mandela University. This opinion piece is in written in her personal capacity.