Inquest into student death
Thursday, 29 August 2019
Dear colleagues,
Following the sad news in February that one of our students, Daniel Williams, died at our Whiteknights campus, an inquest was held in Reading earlier today.
We were all deeply saddened by the death of Daniel and I would like to extend my condolences to his family, friends, and all those who knew him. Daniel was a second year Computer Science student. He had done very well in his first year and was excelling particularly in his modules on programming and software engineering, and he was well placed to succeed in his upcoming placement in the computing industry, where he had already made several applications. He was popular with a wide group of friends and is greatly missed by all those who knew him.
After a thorough investigation, the coroner ruled that Daniel’s death was a tragic accident caused by drowning while under the influence of alcohol. The findings of the inquest will contribute to work already underway regarding the safety and wellbeing of our students, including implementing the recommendations following our lake safety review in April and developing an alcohol-awareness campaign.
If you or any colleagues would like someone to talk to, I would encourage you to make use of our Employee Assistance Programme, Confidential Care, which provides a comprehensive range of confidential help and advice.
For any students with concerns, please ask them to get in touch with our Student Welfare Team who will be able to provide support. All students also have access to Big White Wall, our free online support community available 24/7.
Kind regards,
Mark
Professor Mark Fellowes
Pro-Vice-Chancellor