The profound modifications of the material environment, ecological, sociocultural, ideological and familiar, confront people with situations of hostility that generate suicide. These evidences advocate imperious need to promote mental health and individual/social equilibrium of citizens, in particular in academic context.

In order to answer the question "What are the levels of suicide risk for university students?" We performed a literature review indexed in online databases, obtaining 37 articles published between 2006 and 2017.

This review is of the utmost importance to the educational system, due to the relationship between education/mental health, resetting or catching up with the school‘s role in the prevention of risk factors. The results reveal an incentive to the scientific community for future research and development support of strategic programs with specific interventions to promote mental health in university students and social and educational policies.