What support is available to students? video transcript
Today I'm finding out about the different types of support we provide to our students to help them succeed during their time at University, both personally and academically.
So hi Sarah: you're Head of Student Services at the University of Derby. What does that involve?
Hi Alice. So Student Services at the University of Derby has several teams which are dedicated to supporting our students through the entire student journey. So in our teams, we've got the counselling team, we've got mental health support, we've got disability, and we've got a team dedicated to providing advice and guidance around money. We're also really fortunate here at Derby that we've got an on-site GP, Park Medical Practice, and we've also got a dedicated Multi-Faith Centre which offers a range of pastoral and spiritual support.
And how do students get started with accessing all this support? So there are multiple ways that students can access support at Derby: you can phone us, you can email us, or you can access a range of support and advice and guidance via our webpages. We've got a range of self-help supports on the web pages including the fantastic Talk Campus app which delivers peer-on-peer support for our students. The support that we put in place will be bespoke, tailored to the student needs, and it can flex and bend according to their needs throughout the journey of their studies.
Sending your son or daughter off to university can be a really exciting but potentially overwhelming time. What advice do you have to offer them?
Absolutely Alice, and we recognise that. The key advice that we would provide is to encourage their son, daughter, or the learner, to get in touch with Student Services as soon as possible. That can even be before they come to campus and start their studies.
And how does the support that the University offers its students differ from that that they might have received at school?
The key difference is that it's student-led. The University won't implement the support automatically; we wait for the learner to come to us when they feel ready to receive that support, or when they disclose,
So what happens where students might need a different type of support, perhaps it's academic help that they need?
So the support that we provide at university involves a range of other internal and external departments and organisations. One of the key teams that we work with is the College Student Centres who will provide a range of academic support and advice and guidance.
Hi Nat, I've just been finding out about the support provided by our Student Services team. How does that differ from what you do in the College Student Centres?
So the College Student Centres are a dedicated place for information, advice, guidance and support around any academic or student queries that you may have. We've got a dedicated team of personal college advisors who will be there to answer any query that you've got or alternatively signpost you to one of our specialist services such as Student Wellbeing or the wider student services team. Ultimately, the College Student Centre is that first point of contact and what I would say to you is if you don't know who to speak to or where to go, come to your College Student Center and they'll be able to point you in the right direction or answer that query for you. And what sorts of things can you offer that advice on?
First of all, we'll start off with enrolment. So help you through your registration and get you enrolled on your course. We can answer those queries that you may have about your student loan and also help you get your Unicard that gets you into the University. We can also help you with your academic program advice as well. So whether that's queries around the regulations or your overall degree classification. We can support you with student support letters. So that means if you need to open a bank account or approve your council tax status as well. We can help you if you're struggling with assignments and support you with a request for additional consideration if you're not able to meet your deadlines. And also we can support you with your attendance and engagement as well.
How do you help our students to stay on track with their studies?
So the way in which we support our students to stay on track with their studies is through our student engagement monitoring. So what we do is we monitor student attendance to ensure that they can get the best possible academic outcomes. We know that good attendance means that you're less likely to withdraw or fail on your course and get the best degree outcome. So where students might be struggling with their studies, how can you help with that?
So there are lots of people that they can talk to at the University. First of all, they've got the support from their academic team: so you've got your module leader, and the module leader can talk to them about the module content and also their deadlines. You've then got your programme leader who can talk about the wider course content and any support that they need in relation to that. They've got their Personal Academic Tutor who can help them with academic advancement and give them some coaching to get the best possible degree outcomes and then finally as you've mentioned with Sarah, we've got Student Services in our Wellbeing team who can help with support plans and any mental health enquiries.
Thanks Nat, so lots of support is available for our students to make sure they can succeed. Coming to university is exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming at times. To help, we offer a range of services to support you both during your application and when you start studying with us. Whether you have questions about your course, concerns about your wellbeing, or just need some advice or reassurance, our friendly expert teams are here to help.