Safeguarding mental health among the young

There is a mental (ill-)health epidemic in the UK. Anxiety, self-harm and depression are on the rise among teenagers and university students, and not enough is being done to identify the root cause, nor to effectively treat those suffering. Rohin Burney-O’Dowd, IF summer intern, investigates

Ashes to ashes? Justice and the world we leave behind

Recent decades have seen important steps toward equality for different genders, sexualities and ethnicities. But members of one “group” remain second-class citizens. We must broaden our understanding of social membership and take responsibility for the effects of our actions upon those who will be born after we are gone. Rohin Burney-O’Dowd, IF summer intern, investigates.

College dropout: Student loan hikes and hubris

After two successive years of increasing university dropout rates — especially rapid among students from the most disadvantaged areas — it is time for the government to reconsider the effect of large student debts upon university accessibility, and thus to re-evaluate the recent replacement of maintenance grants for students from low-income households with additional, burdensome loans.… Read more »

Widening the lens on British universities: Neoliberalism, price tags and value

The alarming growth of student debts is the most tangible and evocative manifestation of intergenerational injustice in the current system of higher education. But it is only an emblem of a wider process that has increasingly undermined British universities in the last four decades. Rohin Burney-O’Dowd, IF summer intern, investigates