Oxford student found hanged
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Your support makes all the difference.THE HEAD of Oxford University's counselling service spoke yesterday of the pressures that may have contributed to the death of an 18-year-old student, who was found hanged just a week after the start of her first term.
Elsa Bell said that in the often traumatic move away from home, the burden of high expectations added to the stress faced by gifted students like Tracey Cole, found dead in her room at Lady Margaret Hall on Thursday.
'There's an enormous pressure on high-achievers always to be better than everyone else, both from others and from themselves.'
Ms Cole was said to have felt intense pressure as an A-level student at Exeter College in Devon where she gained three A grades, and wrote the top paper in the country in sociology.
'It's a great tragedy,' Duncan Stewart, principal of Lady Margaret Hall, said. 'The whole college is deeply shocked. She had only started to make friends, but there was no sign of her being depressed. It's a mystery as to what happened . . .
'She had every reason to expect to do well here because she had an outstanding pre-university record academically. She was on the verge of an undergraduate career that had every possibility of being highly successful . . . As far as pressure of work is concerned, with her record she had no reason to be particularly concerned.'
Police who spoke to students at the college were working on the theory that Ms Cole committed suicide after being 'overwhelmed' by the volume of work she was set to face during her three-year English course. A spokesman said: 'It appears this young lady decided it was all going to be too much for her.'
Ms Cole's parents travelled to Oxford from their home in Exeter yesterday to identify the body. An inquest was opened and adjourned to a date to be fixed.
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