Over the past few months, I’ve heard from multiple different universities that they’re struggling. Struggling with budget cuts, staffing pressures, student demand, rising levels of need, and the brutal reality of being asked to do more with less. I know several universities are currently going through restructures or redundancy processes. And while this is hitting every area of provision – from teaching hours to wellbeing services – I’m obviously most concerned about eating disorder related provisions.
The kind of work I do – bringing in lived and professional experience to offer ED-focused training, collaborative research, staff development, and student support – has always technically sat outside the university’s core offering. But let’s be honest: eating disorders aren’t additional. Not anymore. Not when so many students are struggling. Not when prevalence is up, acuity is up, and services are, frankly, overwhelmed.
In the years since the pandemic, I’ve seen a sharp and steady rise in the need for eating disorder support in university settings. I’ve also seen a sharp and steady decline in universities’ capacity to pay for it.
It’s not that they don’t want it. I know that. I’ve had incredible partnerships with staff who are doing their absolute best, often pushing for initiatives like The Eating Disorder Recovery Companion (TRC), training days, workshops, co-produced resources, or research collaborations. But in many cases I now hear, “We’d love to – but we’ve had our budgets cut again.” Or: “We’ve had to pull back on anything outside the absolute essentials.”
It’s disheartening. Not because of the financial impact on my work (though, let’s not lie – that matters when you’re self-employed) – but because I know what’s at stake.
Universities are telling me they can’t afford things like:
- Staff training to spot signs and support students safely.
- TRC institutional licences (even though I offer to supply them at a price that works out at literally only pence per student!)
- Research partnerships to help to understand what students are going through and what really works.
- Workshops that equip student support teams to hold and to help ED-related distress both safely and confidently.
It feels like a car crash in slow motion. These things are needed more than ever – and yet are seen as being expendable because they’re not part of the statutory core.
We need to rethink that.
Eating disorders are not a fringe issue. They don’t sit neatly in one department. They are showing up in every faculty, in every counselling room, in peer support groups, in classrooms, in student kitchens. They are showing up in the anxiety about food, the skipped meals, the workouts replacing lectures, the weight loss medications bought online. They are showing up in students who do not (or cannot) make it to graduation.
I know budgets are stretched. I know cuts are coming from the top and affecting every layer below. But we’re at real risk here of creating even wider gaps in care – and of making staff feel even more underprepared and unsupported when students come forward with ED-related needs.
So what’s the answer?
I don’t have a magic wand. I can’t stop the restructuring processes or generate new funding pots. But I do believe we have to start thinking differently.
Maybe that means pooling resources across departments.
Maybe that means co-creating grant-funded projects, or making the case even more strongly to leadership before another student cohort slips through the cracks
Maybe it even means fundraising.
I’ve spent years working with universities on exactly this kind of work – building ED-aware resources, facilitating training, supporting research, and creating scalable tools like TRC. But right now, it’s not about selling a service. It’s about starting a conversation.
If you work in a university – or know someone who does – and you want to keep eating disorder support in the picture, even in a stretched system, I’d love to hear from you. Let’s talk honestly about what’s possible, what’s needed, and what creative solutions we might build together.
Because if we keep waiting for more money before we take EDs seriously in higher education, we’ll have missed the chance to stop a lot of avoidable harm.
And that, I think, is something none of us want.
If this post resonates, please share it with colleagues.
You can find more about The Eating Disorder Recovery Companion [here].
You can also reach me directly if you’d like to talk through ideas or pricing options.
Be kind, be curious, be yourself. And let’s keep pushing for the support that we know our students need.
A painful but very necessary read, Kel.
And yes, there is no “magic money tree” 😉 but reframing our thinking around
ED and young people in these settings is paramount.
Thank you for this inspiring piece.