'We could've done better ahead of student's suicide'

UNIVERSITY 'HAS LEARNED FROM TRAGEDY'

- By LOIS MCCARTHY, DAVID POWELL

A UNIVERSITY has admitted that it 'could have done better' before the tragic death of an Anglesey student.

Five years ago, Mared Foulkes was given the wrong examination result by Cardiff University.

The second-year pharmaceuticals student (pictured), 21, of Cae Uchaf Farm, Menai Bridge, was found dead near Britannia Bridge in July 2020, just hours after she received an email wrongly saying she had failed and would not be able to progress to the third year of her course.

A coroner at an inquest in Caernarfon in October 2021 heard she was found on rocks on July 8 that year and concluded that she died by suicide.

At the time, Mared’s parents Glyngwyn and Iona Foulkes expressed 'disbelief' at the 'complicated and confusing' way the institution dealt with its students.

One email stated that she had failed with 39 per cent when Mared had in fact passed the exam with 62 per cent. Now Cardiff University has talked publicly for the first time about the circumstances leading up to Mared’s death.

The university told ITV that it 'could've done better.'