Student Support Advisers

The role of a Student Support Adviser is to provide you with information and advice on a wide range of university matters including:

• course-related issues, options and module choices
• academic regulations, procedures and rules
• transferring to other programmes within the University
• what to do if unforeseen personal or medical issues affect your studies or assessments
• taking time out or withdrawing from the University
• paternity, partner and adoption leave
• pregnancy support – if you are pregnant, we can work with you and your academic department to agree a plan to support your studies
• trans/non-binary gender support – for more information, please see our Equality, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) policies and guidance.

Additionally, as part of their role, Student Support Advisers may contact you to offer support if your engagement profile is very low in the MyEngagement system. More information can be found via MyAttendance and MyEngagement.

The Student Support Adviser will work to ensure your educational support needs are met during pregnancy, during any period of leave and on your return to study. The Student Support Adviser will liaise with you, your academic department, the Graduate School and other professional services as necessary, to ensure that reasonable adjustments are made. The arrangements will be recorded in a Student Pregnancy Support Plan, which will normally cover:

• arrangement for antenatal appointments
• examinations and assessments
• health and safety
• placements, field work and study abroad
• visa implications
• student finances
• absence (suspension of studies, pregnancy, maternity, adoption or partner leave).

For more information, please see the Student Pregnancy, Maternity and Adoption and Partner Policy (PDF). Student Support Advisers can also help to coordinate support for your studies by signposting or referring you to other specialist services where appropriate.

Within the Student Advice team, there are designated Student Support Advisers with the expertise to offer confidential advice and guidance to our trans and non-binary students.

It is important that we have the right information about you on our system and that we are aware of any changes to your identity and personal information. We want to ensure that we help you to update your information across the University. We can help with:

• providing documents to provide for name or gender change
• the process of name or gender change
• finding support available during transition
• international student name or gender change and visa changes
• making changes to our student information management system
• our data protection and confidentiality policy
• any questions you may have.

For more information on how we can support you, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) available in the University’s guidance referring to trans and non-binary students (PDF).