Higher Education Professionals
Colleges and universities serve millions of students navigating bereavement and academic life at the same time — often without institutional acknowledgment.
More than 30 percent of students in higher education are within two years of losing a close friend or family member. Most institutions have no policy to address it.
Each year, more than four million students in higher education are socially and academically impacted by bereavement. Yet less than one percent of higher education institutions have student-specific bereavement policies.
As a higher education professional, you may interact with bereaved students, family members, classmates, and colleagues. Managing the responses of those impacted by a death — while also managing your own — is a professional reality that deserves formal acknowledgment and preparation
How bereavement affects brain function
Bereavement impairs memory, concentration, and the ability to process and retain information. The people you serve may struggle to absorb what you tell them in the moment. Slow down, keep communications clear, and provide written information whenever possible.
Cultural and religious practices
Honoring cultural and religious practices respects family values and mourning rituals, reduces trauma, and builds trust. Practices vary widely — in the timing of burial, who may care for the body, and how long formal mourning lasts. Ask the family what matters to them rather than assuming, and follow their lead.
Repeating information
Bereaved people often need to hear the same information more than once before they can recall it. Expect to repeat key facts two or three times, and expect families to call back with questions you have already answered. Answering again without signaling impatience is one way to be supportive.
Practical Tips
Acknowledge the loss directly.
Saying you are sorry for a student’s loss and listening to their experience is important. Saying nothing at all sends a message that the loss does not warrant acknowledgment.
Understand the academic impact of bereavement.
Bereavement significantly affects cognition, including concentration, retention, and the ability to process complex information. Students are not simply sad, their academic functioning is genuinely impaired.
Offer temporary academic accommodations.
Extended deadlines, open-book assessments, or additional time for testing can allow students to remain enrolled and engaged.
Know the signs.
Bereavement often manifests as changes in sleep, appetite, motivation, and social engagement. These changes can result in withdrawal, academic failure, or disciplinary issues if unrecognized.
Establish and enforce a student bereavement policy.
Institutions that extend bereavement leave to faculty and staff but not students have a policy gap that is both inconsistent and harmful. Student-specific policies provide structure, reduce the burden on individual faculty to make discretionary decisions, and signal institutional care.
Encourage collaboration across departments.
Coordination between academic advisors, deans’ offices, the registrar, student life, and human resources can ease the administrative burden on newly bereaved students.
Train faculty and staff.
Immediate instructors and academic advisors have the most sustained contact with bereaved students. Basic training on the impact of bereavement on academic performance is a professional baseline.
Connect students to campus and community resources.
Mental health services, peer support, and community organizations can be important resources. Provide this information in writing. Most students are not ready for long-term engagement for months after a significant loss.
Honor cultural and religious traditions.
Be responsive to how cultural and religious practices influence a student’s needs around accommodations and engagement.
When a student has died
Handle belongings with care.
Ask the family how and when they would like to receive their child’s belongings. Do not make this decision without them.
Handle billing with compassion.
Determine whether and how you will bill the family for services and education. Consider releasing the family from prior and future billing.
Discuss graduation and key events.
Talk with the family about how to honor or recognize the student during school events, including annual remembrance ceremonies and graduation.
Send written condolences.
Families appreciate acknowledgment from the institutions that served their children.
Cease all institutional communication.
Remove the family and caregivers from all correspondence — calls, emails, flyers — from the financial aid office, the registrar, athletics, and student life, unless specifically requested.
Host an annual remembrance.
Honoring losses validates relationships and the person who died. Be flexible so bereaved families can engage as little or as much as they choose.
– WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW –
Implementing a Student Bereavement Leave Policy in Higher Education Settings
Most institutions extend bereavement leave to faculty and staff, but not to students. Closing that gap takes more than goodwill; it takes a policy, a process, and people willing to carry it through committee.
Evermore's Higher Education Leave Plan (HELP) Team — an interdisciplinary group of scholars and student affairs professionals from across the United States and abroad — built this toolkit for institutions ready to do that work.
Part One
What You Need to Know (Part 1) covers the evidence base for student bereavement leave, the questions your institution will need to answer, and what existing policies look like at institutions that have adopted them.
ToolkitPart Two
Part Two is in development. Tell us where to send it and we will send Part One now and Part Two the moment it is ready. Prefer to talk with someone? Get in touch with the HELP Team.
Caring for yourself
Taking care of yourself is fundamental to your work and to your long-term health. The effects of sustained exposure to stress, death, and trauma are not only psychological — they are physical. Sleep disruption, immune dysfunction, cardiovascular strain, and cumulative emotional fatigue are occupational realities in roles like yours.
Practical steps matter. Getting enough sleep, drinking water, moving your body, and spending time with people you care about are not small things. Reaching out to a mental health professional is not a sign of weakness. These are acts of professional maintenance. Caring for yourself makes you better able to do your work.
Reframe common questions
“How are you doing?” can be reframed as “How are you coping?” — which acknowledges the weight of what the person is carrying. It may be more helpful to say “I have been thinking of you” or to make a specific offer rather than a general one.
Do not ask how the person died
What matters is that they died, not how. Asking can force bereaved people to relive the most painful details of their experience.
Say the name
Using the name of the deceased acknowledges the importance of their life. Confirm pronunciation and ask whether there is a preferred name or nickname. Do not worry about reminding them — they are already thinking about it.
All deaths are not equivalent
Resist any urge to share your own experience of death or to compare one loss to another. Every experience of loss is different. If you have experienced a death yourself, you may offer a private moment to share — but be sensitive to the impact on both of you.
Bereavement lasts a long time
Bereaved people will not be feeling better in a few weeks, or even in a year. Adjusting to a significant loss takes years. Their lives are permanently changed.
It is their story, not yours
Being a consistent, non-judgmental presence — without redirecting attention to yourself — is one of the most valuable things you can offer.
Professional Resources
Resources
For grieving people and those who support them
10 Ways to Support
10 Ways to Support a Grieving Person
Bereavement 101
Find a space that suits you and your work.
Community Homepage
Information for professionals who serve bereaved people
