Suicide Rate in MIT Students Higher than National Average; Classes Too Hard?

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The suicide rate of 12.5 per 100,000 students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) over the past five years is reported to be higher than the national average of suicides for college campuses.

The suicide rate per 100,000 students over the past decade was 10.2, but a rate increase to 12.5 in the last five years is much concerning, noted the Boston Globe. The increase is due to the rise in the figures among undergraduate students with suicide rate of 12.6 than that of graduate students with suicide rate of 8.5.

The national average of suicides for college campuses among graduate and undergraduate students recorded from 1980 to 2009 were between 6.5 and 7.5 according to three major studies, reported the Boston Globe.

The rate of suicide among undergraduates has decreased from 18.7 per 100,000 between 1994 and 2005, though the figures exceed the national average of suicides in graduate and undergraduate students, said MIT chancellor Cynthia Barnhart.

"We are numbers driven and we use the numbers to help us in thinking about how we can improve services and work with our students as effectively as possible," noted Barnhart, according to Boston Globe.

Following two consecutive suicides in a week among first year undergraduate students, MIT has reduced the course load, reports the Daily News. Christina Tournant and Matthew Nehring, undergraduate students of MIT, had committed suicide in the first week of March, according to the The Tech.

The students were asked by the professors to skip homework assignments and the exams, and assessments were made optional at the Cambridge campus. Professor George Verghese, from the Department of Electrical Engineering, took students to the nearby art museum cancelling a lecture.

MIT President L. Rafael Reif said in a campuswide email that, "This is a moment when we need each other, a moment for caring, understanding and kindness," he also added that "We will come through this tragic period together" said the Daily News.

Meanwhile, the overall national suicide rate of 11 per 100,000 for over a decade in the U.S. is reported to have increased to 13 suicides per 100,000 in 2013 and 11 to 11.6 per 100,000 among College goers, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bob Anderson, chief of the National Center for Health Statistics' mortality statistics branch, said that there is nothing obvious that would seem to explain the causes of suicides. He also added that "the fact that it's steadily rising and hasn't turned down is worrisome" reported the Boston Globe.