The Mental Health Support Gap in Universities- between El Salvador and the UK

Plymouth Marjon Library

Mental health has become a recurring theme on university campuses. My name is Natalia Ramírez, and as an international student from El Salvador currently studying in the UK, I have noticed how different life as a university student can be in both settings, particularly when it comes to mental health and wellbeing.

Mental health is a very important factor in academic performance. The consequences can be seen in their academic qualification, continuing with their studies after the first year and pursuing their degrees, and sometimes it can even lead to self-harm. The extent of it can affect a student’s life throughout their employability.

This investigation will explore students’ perceptions of mental health in both the UK and El Salvador, how they differ, and whether these differences are due to independent factors such as social relations at university, personal and cultural backgrounds, and support systems at university. All through the eyes of a comparative approach.

Questions raised during this research

• Can seeking help be easier on some campuses while complicated in others?

• Is it because of the differences in their cultural backgrounds?

• Which are the main factors that contribute to students’ mental health in each country, and how much do they vary?

Methodology

For this investigation, different research methods were used. The purpose was to be able to compare and contrast the different viewpoints from both countries. To pursue this, professionals in the fields were interviewed, and surveys were sent out through student groups and social media in the UK and El Salvador.

The interviews were conducted following an open-format discussion for each question. The purpose of these interviews was to gain perspectives from professionals in different areas. A private psychologist, Flavia Miranda Escobar, a Mental Health volunteer organisation, Mentalandia, and a student support system at the university, Student and Well-being Services at Marjon University.

The survey was conducted in a multiple-choice and open-ended question format, with the intention of gaining perspective on the experience of those immersed in it. Hear those opinions from those who are being affected by the main topic that this investigation wanted to address. There are also different databases used to obtain specific statistics, which will be mentioned throughout.

What do we talk about when we talk about Mental Health?

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), a mental disorder is characterised by a clinically significant disturbance in an individual’s cognition, emotional regulation, or behaviour. And it is usually related to distress or disability in other important areas. This term might be complex for some people, which may be why they are resistant to it. There are different factors that can provoke a mental disorder, such as substances, the social environment at home or at school,and also genetics. This can happen at any age, but in this investigation, we will focus on university students.  

In order to get a more clinical perspective we interviewed the psychologist Flavia Miranda Escobar, from Arboretum, she mentioned social media is now playing a tricky role in mental health awareness among young people. She mentioned how, for the most part, some platforms have helped reduce stigmas by encouraging more people to talk about it but,  it has also increased self-diagnosis and people falling for false information.

She emphasised how the post- pandemic generations that are going to universities right now were deeply impacted in their education during high school. This leads to an added difficulty when it comes to their academic performance while they transfer from high school to higher education.  

Mental Health in the UK: According to previous studies

In the UK, there’s a collection of data ( Higher Education Statistics Agency ( HESA)) that keeps a record of any disabilities that students disclose. According to student characteristics data, the number of students who reported a mental health condition increased from under 1% in 2010 to over 5% in 2023.

According to the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI), the most recent survey, published in 2025, revealed that 40% of students believe universities should provide comprehensive mental health services. This survey also showed that out of the 67% of students who considered withdrawing from university, 28% say it is because of mental health. It also revealed that there’s been a considerable rise in the percentage of full-time university students doing paid work during term time. It was 56% in 2024 and has now risen to 68% in 2025.

As stated in the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics in the UK, the estimated suicide rate among higher education students was 6.9 deaths per 100,000 students between 2017 and 2023. This is lower than the general population rate.

Student Minds is the UK’ s student mental health charity, and according to them, 1 in 4 students report having a diagnosed mental health issue at university. 95% of students participated in workshops held by Student Minds this year, where they helped them gain knowledge of support services available at their university.  

“We are a very small team within Student Wellbeing and Support, and are unable to facilitate being a crisis service. If students feel that they are in crisis, our team will encourage them to call crisis lines, visit A&E, contact their GP, or explore other immediate sources of support to keep students safe.”  Student Wellbeing services at Marjon University 

Student Wellbeing and Support at Marjon University  

Outside of national statistics, student support systems were also interviewed to get the experts’ opinions. The Student Wellbeing team at Marjon University confirmed that the demand for mental health support  has increased, specifically due to academic pressures and financial stress.

Mental Health in El Salvador: According to previous studies

The First survey on mental health (conducted by FOSALUD in 2022 in El Salvador found that 22% of people aged 18-59 experience some anxiety, and 2.2% have  had suicidal thoughts.In accordance with this survey on mental health, 20.8% of teenagers presented in 2022 with posttraumatic stress,  and 10% of adults had posttraumatic stress. It also revealed that, 20.8% of teenagers and 10% of adults presented in 2022 posttraumatic stress.

On October 10, 2024, ACNUR, the UN Refugee Agency, published an article where they tell us the story of a young lady called Sarai, who grew up surrounded by gang violence and tells her testimony on how badly that affected her well-being since a very young age, especially when she didn’t feel safe at school. This led to her decision to leave the place she knew as home when she was a kid, and caused her several traumas. This was the reality for many young kids as they came of age.  But this also led her to realise the importance of being surrounded by a safe environment. She then contacted CIIEE, a Center focused on Integral Emotional Intelligence, which had launched workshops on mental health, leading her to organise recreational activities that provide psychosocial support to others.  

The Faculty of Medicine in El Salvador conducted a study on students’ perceptions of mental health in September and November 2024. This research was held by Margarita Elizabeth García, a public health teacher. Based on these findings, there is a negative, deficient perspective among students within the university community. It revealed that students feel limited in many ways; they believe that campus wellbeing services are not sufficiently capacitated, and also face economic barriers to receiving decent treatment. Results from this analysis also showed that there is growing concern about how theoretical issues on this topic are being handled. Students believe there should be more conversation about it so that those who grew up with better opportunities can help educate others.

All of this was reflected in Kevin Henríquez Herrera’s interview as well.. He is the creator of Mentalandia, a volunteering initiative that was first founded in 2020 during the COVID pandemic with the intention of creating a safe space for mental care. Mentalandia has grown since then, and in 2023, they were able to start working with three lines of: individual psychological care, group mental health care, which consists of workshops, and cyber activism as part of the defence of other human rights to mental health. All this with the support of 12 other professionals who became part of Mentalandia.  

As a psychologist and based on his experience all these years in Mentalandia, he explains that although mental health is now continuously discussed in university environments, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is being prioritised. He mentioned El Salvador’s institutions ‘ lack of budget in this area, which is what limits the reach that these services might have. While mental health content is growing more every day on social media, Kevin suggests that: “Visibility does not necessarily translate into access.” He says that psychological and psychiatric support are still elitist privileges due to high costs and limited services in the country.  

Universidad Salvadoreña Alberto Masferrer

Survey Results

Survey responses from several universities across the UK were obtained, including Plymouth Marjon University, Leeds University, Exeter University, Bristol UWE, Falmouth, SOAS University of London, Bath Spa University, and Liverpool Hope University.

In El Salvador, we received responses from the private and public sectors, including Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas, Universidad Dr José Matías Delgado, Universidad Tecnológica de El Salvador, Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios, and Universidad Salvadoreña Alberto Masferrer.

“All students who have a wellbeing appointment are sent a feedback survey; the feedback from this is positive, with 100% of respondents saying they are satisfied with their support.” – Student Wellbeing Services at Marjon

According to the results, 100% of students in the UK and 87% in El Salvador said that their  university offers mental health or student wellbeing support services. Only half of them in the UK have used them or know someone who has, whereas in El Salvador, only 37.5% said the same thing. Students were then asked what the main barrier they encountered when they tried to reach out or seek help was.

United Kingdom

El Salvador

 “Increased complexity in the challenges that students are facing, including mental health diagnoses, additional learning needs, personal circumstances, and financial difficulties. Finding the correct specialist support for students can be difficult while services like the NHS are so stretched.” This is what the Student and Wellbeing Services team at Marjon replied when they were asked about the main limitations or challenges that they are currently facing when it comes to offering the support that students are asking for.  

Factors contributing to students’ mental health 

Based on the research published by the House of Commons Library ( April 2025),  some of the main factors include: Moving away from home, all the responsibilities and loneliness that might come from it, and the necessity of finding new support systems in the university environment, different from the ones they had while living at home. In our survey, half of UK students reported having had to move to a different city or country to pursue higher education.

While in El Salvador, this doesn’t seem to be as common, according to the survey results.

Although it might not be as common as in the UK, according to Mentalandia, students who move from rural areas to the capital in El Salvador might have some additional emotional restraint as they are being separated from their support systems and are not often presented with adequate institutional guidance.  

When  students were asked what kind of impact this had on their wellbeing, some of them mentioned homesickness and higher levels of stress while handling not only academic responsibilities but also navigating adult lives.

Another prominent factor is financial pressure, which often comes with moving away from home or being an international student. But it might as well mean paying university fees. In El Salvador, 33.3% of students said that the economic factor “significantly” affects their well-being during their studies, while in the UK, 68.8% said it affects them “moderately”.

How to Improve University Mental Health Support

Lastly, students were asked what actions or changes could improve mental health support services at their universities. In both countries, there were some recurring themes:

Improve Accessibility and waiting times.  

Students from El Salvador said that limited scheduling capacity and, at times, a lack of professionals in this area can be discouraging. Students from the UK expressed in a very similar way that they sometimes have to wait even months, and that facilities or services are understaffed, which can be disappointing and, in some cases, even too late.

Increase Visibility and Information

While in the UK, 100% claimed to be aware of the existence of these services on their campus, they also mentioned that there should be more promotion of services beyond therapy sessions, including more recreational activities on campus, where different groups of people can get together. In El Salvador, students emphasise the lack of information they receive about those services. They believe it should be promoted more often and that more awareness should be raised about those topics so that people can feel more comfortable reaching out for help.

“One of the main stigmas is the belief that mental health problems aren’t that serious or that they can be overcome simply by “trying harder.” There’s also the prejudice that seeking psychological help is a sign of weakness or an inability to handle academic pressure. Many students downplay anxiety, stress, or depression, seeing them as a “normal” part of university life, which leads them to delay seeking support. Furthermore, those who express their feelings are sometimes judged or labeled, creating a fear of speaking openly about the issue.” Anonymous student respondent from survey, El Salvador,2026.

Destigmatisation around campus

In both datasets, it was revealed that students still believe there’s a strong ongoing stigma when we talk about mental health.  What varied was the source of the stigmas. Students from the UK said it comes from university students themselves; they mentioned that people do not believe that you have what it takes to be a scholar if you feel you cannot handle your well-being. Some of them believe that zero-tolerance policies against mistreatment are not being properly implemented in some cases. While students from El Salvador said it can sometimes come from their own professor when they receive their feedback. Teachers could be more understanding and show more empathy towards those who report a mental/ emotional illness.

“I am lucky that my group of friends are very understanding of my specific circumstances and therefore don’t judge, but generally speaking there still seems to be a stigma of there being ‘something wrong with you’ if you struggle with mental health.”  Anonymous student respondent from survey, United Kingdom,2026.

Less Academic Pressure and better Management

Although both countries follow different academic systems, students in El Salvador frequently experience academic overload, requesting better coordination and a more adequate arrangement of the schedule for all of their coursework, which can sometimes become overwhelming. UK students highlighted the necessity of having even more support systems during periods of higher academic stress, such as exam season or when deadlines are approaching.

Conclusion

As a result of this investigation, it was revealed that although there are clear systematic and cultural differences between the UK and El Salvador, mental health and wellbeing services policies at higher education institutions in both countries are currently facing similar challenges. The principal being: Lack of promotion and Information, lack of resources, and academic pressures. There is a need for visibility for there to be an improvement. Educational institutions in all countries should prioritise structures that promote the students’ academic development. Therefore, it is necessary for them to recognise these obstacles, because if they are not aware of what is going on in their campuses, they are not going to be able to give the students sufficient help.

If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, please contact the following services:

United Kingdom :

• Samaritans- please visit their website or call 116 123
• NHS Mental Health Services 
• Student Minds, a UK based charity supporting students mental health

El Salvador :

• Mentalandia, an El Salvador based platform providing support through online platforms.
• ISS “El ISSS Te escucha” :  7171-1302 (24/7)
• Cruz Roja: 2239-4930