I feel extremely supported here at university, regardless of whether it's an academic issue
or a legal issue or a finance issue. There's always loads of people that you can go and
talk to and it just kind of makes you feel like a part of this community and it really
kind of adds to your whole experience of university.
We offer a very broad range of student services at Birmingham, for example we offer advice
and guidance in the form of tuition fee support and financial assistance. We also have an
advisory service for our international students, we take care of wellbeing provision in the
form of disability, mental health and counselling services, we also offer learning support,
we have a university chaplaincy and there's also a division dedicated to furthering students
career prospects and making sure they have the employability skills for when they move
out into the wider world.
Our financial support services give information and advice on a wide range of scholarships,
bursaries and also other financial aid packages. In addition to this we also appreciate that
it's the first time many students have had to manage their own money, so we do a lot
of workshops and budgeting to help you keep on track of your finances.
In my first week at university we actually have a lady coming to give us a financial
talk and she gave us a breakdown budget of how you can deal with your finances. So she
went through how you hold your money coming in and how to balance it with your money going
out, so obviously your student loan and if you have a job and then she kind of talked
about your accommodation and your social life, which was really helpful.
As the Vice President of Welfare at the Guild of Students, I overlook the welfare services
that we run, so things like the student mentor scheme, the advice and representation centre
and also certain aspects of the jobs loan.
The Guild's got loads of different support services. Even though it's staffed by students
it actually uses trained professionals in its support services, so they have the ARK,
which is the Advice and Representation Centre and they can help you with anything from academic
advice to sort of legal advice and things like that. They've also got the nightline
service which is a telephone service you can ring up at any hour of the night and I actually
used them once when I had a question about referencing.
As a mentor it's really important that we basically support the students through all
aspects of university life, so whether they've got any questions or issues with academic
issues or welfare or home sickness, or any questions, be it financial, anything like
that, we're there to answer questions, point them in the right direction and just help
through any issues that they might be having.
Leaving from school to university I thought would be a really big step and I was really
worried that I wouldn't know where to go or what to do when I got here, but luckily
in the first week there was lectures on how to use the library, where to find resources,
how to reference and how to write essays and it eased us in really well.
During Welcome Week we try to provide lots of events for students alongside the typical
nights out and other activities they may be doing. We do games nights and we do talks
and we do lots of meals and free food and cinema trips, bowling, all those sorts of
things, just to help people mix and get to know each other.
In your first week there's absolutely hundreds of events. You're completely overwhelmed.
There's the Residents' Association and they are students who really build a community
around the halls that you live in and from the word go really you're thrown into a
new night out every night in Birmingham and then in the day time going to comedy clubs
and going to the cinema and stuff, intermingled with all the societies and Guild events and
stuff that you've got going on, so it's absolutely overwhelming, it's completely
a change of scene and it's completely new but it's absolutely brilliant, there's
so much to do.
My role is University Senior Tutor. I work with staff and students across campus to ensure
that we provide a very effective, personal tutoring system. I also work with students
on an individual basis. I see them confidentially to discuss their academic progress with them
and provide them with advice and guidance on any problems they may be encountering with
their academic studies.
There's always someone there that you can talk to, regardless of what kind of problem
or issue that you have, so I probably see my personal tutor and my dissertation tutor
once a week. So whether you're struggling with an essay question or where to find resources,
they're always available so you can either email them or you can actually arrange office
hours and actually go in there and kind of throw off some ideas with them and they're
just really friendly and approachable, which is just really fantastic.
Maybe sometimes students run into difficulties during their studies and our personal tutors
are there to help them get through those difficulties. But also students come here as high achievers
and we want to nurture that talent, so our personal tutoring system is designed to recognise
talent and provide guidance and help so that they can achieve the best degree possible.
We're really lucky here at the university as we always have employers coming onto campus.
We have a regular careers fairs where they're looking to recruit people. We also have the
Careers and Employability Centre where they help out with your CV and they have mock interviews
and things like that that are really helpful.
The Careers and Employability Centre at the university is just absolutely fantastic. Now
I'm in my third year I actually qualified for the alumni leadership mentoring programme
so that's where past students who have gone on to succeed in their careers actually train
you throughout your final year at university. So I was lucky enough to get Phyllida Lloyd
who's a Director of Mama Mia and Iron Lady and so I have monthly talks with her and she
talks to me about how to write a perfect CV, how to get work experience and how to break
into a competitive industry and it's just fantastic to speak to someone who's been
to this university and who's actually going through the processes that you're facing
in the near future.
At Birmingham we've develop a very proactive service that seeks to promote a sense of independence
and resilience in our students and also to help them develop the motivation and the skills
to go out there and to develop their own personal wellbeing, and also to take advantage of the
opportunities and the experience that comes with being a student at the university.
I think as a Birmingham student I feel very well supported. With the careers office and
the library and the personal tutors and your lecturers, and then the Guild of Students
on top of that, whatever the question is really there's someone on hand to answer it who's
specially trained. So yeah, I think Birmingham students are very well supported.