UK Inquiry Tracker

Raees Rauf

PFD Report Historic (No Identified Response) Ref: 2019-0503

Date of Report 12 December 2019

Coroner Emma Serrano

Coroner Area Derby and Derbyshire

Response Deadline est. 15 June 2020

Suicide (from 2015)

Judiciary.uk Report PDF

Coroner's Concerns (AI summary)

The university's non-mandatory tutorials and homework in Mathematics made it difficult to identify struggling students, allowing some to go without face-to-face contact for nearly a year and delaying support until exam failures.

View full coroner's concerns

_ During the Inquest: The University accepted during the course of the inquest that; due to the non-mandatory nature of tutorials and homework, within the School of Mathematics, it was difficult to assess whether student was struggling until examination failures unless specifically brought issues to the attention of the university themselves; During the first year of the mathematics degree, students were required to attend lectures or weekly tutorials, and weekly homework set was not mandatory. As a result of this there were no sanctions or requirements t0 meet with form tutors or other tutors within the School of Mathematics at any point within the year; There is no requirement to meet with a tutor at the school of mathematics after failure of an examination; During the second year there was significantly less opportunity to have contact with the students. This was due to the fact that there were no weekly tutorials with personal tutors_ There were . lectures each week, for . all School of Mathematics students however, attendance was not monitored and was not mandatory: Therefore, sometimes you only notice after exams if a student is really struggling; The university accepted that after this then reach a dead end, where believe a student is unwell but they have no other means of addressing Students can be required to withdraw from the university with no face to face contact with any member of the University staff: The University detailed how they had changed their policies to address issues highlighted, but accepted that without adequate monitoring measures mandatory attendance to tutorial and mandatory homework assignments, and in the absence of sanctions for non-attendance of tutorials or failing to hand in homework assignments, the policies may not bite. It was accepted that; were the same situation to present itself again_with another_student_it_may be_that_ [ILI: PROTECT] May gun they not they they nothing different happened to try and assist or help. Students in the School of Mathematics could potentially go without any face to face contact with any member of staff at the University for almost a year:

Sent To

Bristol University

Response Status

Linked responses 0 of 1

56-Day Deadline 15 Jun 2020

About PFD responses

Organisations named in PFD reports must respond within 56 days explaining what actions they are taking.

Source: Courts and Tribunals Judiciary

Report Sections

Investigation and Inquest

On the 20 September 2018 an investigation was commenced into the death of Raees Osman Rauf by Assistant Coroner Rachael Sayed. The investigation concluded at the end of the inquest on December 2019. The inquest was conducted by myself: The conclusion of the inquest was a short form conclusion of Suicide_ The cause of death was: 1a) Shotgun wound to the head,

Circumstances of the Death

Raees Osman Rauf started attending the University of Bristol, School of Mathematics, in September 2016. During his first year the course was structured to include lectures, weekly tutorials (led by his Personal Tutor) and weekly homework assignments. Lectures_ Tutorials and homework assignment were not mandatory: Raees Osman Rauf; attended his initial induction : tutorial, and was signposted to the relevant Welfare Agencies at this point iii) After & few weeks Raees Osman Rauf stopped attending his tutorials and completing homework assignments, On the 10.November 2016 he was sent an email by his personal tutor offering him support; but did not respond to this_ iv) In early November Raees Osman Rauf failed at least one of his exams_ obtaining 70/120 credits He re-sat these, passed and :continued to the second year of his degree course in September 2017 , The structure of the second year is made up of lectures only, with no weekly tutorial sessions Homework is set each week but is not mandatory. The University_accepted that_this left the University no way of monitoring if a [ILI: PROTECT]

student was struggling until they started to fail exams Personal Tutors are required to offer four; one to oe, meetings per year to their students_ Raees Osman Raufs did not undertake these offers vi) In January, and June of 2018, Raees Osman Rauf failed to attend for the majority of his exams_ The exams he did attend, he failed, On the 11 January 2018 an email was sent to him ' regarding his failure and he responded saying that he was fine_ vii) Around MaylJune (the university could not be sure) he received a phone call from somebody within the University Administration Department who asked how he was; He said he was fine On the 26 June 2018 he was sent an email asking that he withdrew from the university. viii) On the 12 September 2018 he took his own life with a shot to the head.

Action Should Be Taken

In my opinion action should be taken to prevent future deaths and believe you have the power to take such action: You may wish to consider:
1) Policies and procedures surrounding first year attendance, homework assessment; sanctions and escalation measures regarding students;
2) Policies and procedures surrounding the second year course structure attendance. Homework assessments, and escalation measures surrounding students;
3) University policies and procedures regarding contact, potentially face to face, with students who are struggling;
4) Policies and procedures regarding contact; and potential contact of a next of kin, and how they relate to introverted students who do not highlight any concerns to the university; and
5) Policies and procedures regarding escalation of contact measures where a student repeatedly fails to engage_