10 SNU student suicides reported in 5 years

By Kim Bo-eun

Seoul National University (SNU) has seen 10 of its students commit suicide in the past five years, according to the nation’s top university Tuesday.

Rep. Kim Sang-hee of the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) and member of the National Assembly’s Education, Science and Technology Committee requested the data for public disclosure.

Three of the students who took their own lives had been suffering from depression, one had been stressed about poor grades and six had been unhappy about their lives in general. All of them were male.

The data also showed more students, especially graduate students, are visiting the counseling center and health clinic on campus. The number of graduate students visiting the center doubled from 74 in 2007 to 147 in 2011.

Students visiting the stress clinic within the school’s heath center have risen from 130 in 2008 to 504 in 2012. Those diagnosed with depressive and anxiety disorders at the clinic quadrupled from 2008 to 2011.

Those diagnosed with depression rose from 89 in 2008 to 371 in 2011. The number of students diagnosed with anxiety disorders grew from 47 in 2008 to 194 in 2011.

A large portion of students received counseling on emotional instability. According to the data, 30 to 40 students among those receiving counseling are on medication each year.

SNU-CALL, the school’s crisis hotline, has also seen a surge in the number of callers. In 2011, there were six cases in which personnel were dispatched for crisis intervention.

“Students at SNU can be under a lot of pressure. Social circumstances have become tougher, so the excessive pressure for these students to become successful can lead to the development of mental disorders,” said Kim. “There needs to be an effective support system that can help these students overcome mental crises.”

The situation is not unique to SNU. An earlier report made public by Rep. Kim Tae-won of the ruling Saenuri Party showed that 14.3 percent or 884 out of 6,173 of the students at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) are suffering from depression.

Three out of four students that committed suicide last year had also been found to have been depressed.

According to a survey conducted on the students last year, 94.4 percent responded that the school does not provide adequate facilities through which the students can relieve stress from their studies. Most of the students (95.2 percent) agreed that there is a need for such facilities in schools.

Kim emphasized the importance of having programs and facilities that can serve as outlets for the students’ stress.