When Harrison De George died three months ago, his family's life was turned upside down.
The budding 23-year-old teacher had been studying for his PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education) at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) but on December 7, his family received the worst possible news.
A flatmate had found Harrison unresponsive at their apartment in Salford.
Paying tribute to him following his death, his family said: "He was a beloved brother, son, friend, cousin and nephew and loved by so many.
"Harrison was an unbelievable man, he had such passion for life and carried himself with such charm and grace.
"He was so intelligent, and emotionally intelligent and was genuinely one of the most caring and loving men around.
"What we have learnt from this is how truly loved and special he was, and how he was the absolute light of so many lives."
Harrison's older sister Izzy, 25, has now set out to create real change in the way that universities operate, in relation to unreported absences.
Telling Harrison's story, she said: "On the day of my brother’s suicide, he didn’t turn up to placement.
"He was supposed to be teaching a maths class at 11am, but the placement didn’t notify the universities placement team that Harrison had not turned up to placement and hadn’t notified them of his absence.
"The university were unaware of Harrison’s absence from placement until we called them the next day to inform them that Harrison had passed away.
"We looked into the student handbook at the university Harrison was studying at and found limited information on student wellbeing. We also found that unless a student was absent and had not contacted the placement for two consecutive days placements were not required to contact the university until the third day."
This came as a shock to Izzy and she contacted MMU to ask them about their policies.
She added: "In one of my roles as a nurse I worked with students and liaised with universities.
"It was common policy that placement areas must notify the university as soon as a student is absent without contacting the placement area. Universities then would attempt contact with the student themselves, and their next of kin failing that."
MMU has since strengthened its policy on PGCE absences.
Now, if a student teacher has an unnotified absence, the placement must inform the placements team on the morning of the first day of absence.
The placement team should log this and immediately notify the placement partnership co-ordinator. They should also try and make contact with the student as soon as possible.
If there is no response from the student, then it is reported directly to the Head of School, who will review it and make contact with next of kin, police or other welfare services.
A spokesman for MMU said: " Our thoughts remain with Harrison's family and friends.
"Student welfare is always our top priority and we are keen to explore any steps we can take to enhance the support we offer.
"We provide a range of measures to support mental health and wellbeing of our students and staff and continue to review and add to these where necessary.
"Following Harrison's death and subsequent discussions with his family, we reviewed our processes with placement providers and have re-emphasised the importance of them informing us at the earliest opportunity if one of our students has not attended their workplace or there are wellbeing concerns.
"While we know these measures would not have made a difference unfortunately in Harrison's case, we were happy to provide this additional reassurance to his family and are supportive of them in raising awareness of the measures we have in place."
Izzy believes that MMU went 'above and beyond' and she is now collaborating with non-profit mental health organisation Mad Millennials in order to try and bring change at other universities throughout the country.
Since Harrison's death, his family have set up a Just Giving page, where more than £22,000 has been donated to mental health charity CALM.
Izzy and 14 of Harrison's friends also plan to cycle from Manchester to their home town of Chandlers Ford, in Hampshire, in June for the charity Ripple.
"I believe that Harrison’s university went above and beyond to make changes to the way they support their students on placement," Izzy said.
"However, I expect that a number of universities have outdated policies and support methods for students on placement.
"I want students to feel supported whilst they’re on placement, and I want to try to prevent at least one more suicide. Suicide at universities and within young males is at an all-time high, and we need to ensure placement students are being supported appropriately."
