Support and Welfare

Student Representation

Find out more about Postgraduate Representation through SUSU here .

Enabling Services

Find our more about Enabling Services here .

Postgraduate Mentoring

In the first year you can request a mentor/buddy who will be a fellow post graduate student in year 2 or 3, if you feel this would be helpful. The mentor/buddy can provide practical support to help you settle into the research environment, School, and wider University. Please speak with your Programme Lead.

Senior academic tutor team

Colleagues are available to offer pastoral support to students needing additional support during the course of their studies.

Should you experience a particular ‘life event’ or personal difficulties during your time at the University, our role in the School is to offer and facilitate support for you and your Programme Lead or Supervisor in dealing with that difficulty. Most academic staff are very experienced in dealing with a whole range of pastoral problems and under normal circumstances you should contact your Programme Lead or Supervisor first. Through discussion you might decide to involve the SAT (Senior Academic Tutor) team.

We will supplement existing support mechanisms that are in place within the School and wider University and our close links with those various bodies will help to ensure that you receive the best and most appropriate help/advice possible in order to see you through your difficult situation.

Confidentiality and shared information

• We will deal with all information you give us in a sensitive manner and wherever possible we will maintain confidentiality within the team. However, there might be occasion where it is in your best interest for us to disclose something you have told us (for example something that might affect your safety or the safety of others). Under those conditions we will make sure that only those people who need to know are contacted.
• We will ask you for permission to notify your Programme Lead of any referrals we have made for you. Should you choose not to share the information we will ensure that you understand the consequences of that decision.
• You might be asked to consent to sharing particular information, for example at an appeals committee. Should you choose not to share the information we will ensure that you understand the consequences of that decision.
• There is no guarantee that you will see a member of the team of your choice, but somebody in the SAT team will be able to help you.

Contact with the team

Your Programme Lead or Supervisor can refer students to the team or you may self-refer by email using the form on our black board site.
Please send a completed Form to [email protected]

School Health Sciences Health & Safety

It is the supervisory team’s responsibility to advise the student on safety procedures, especially if the research project entails working with dangerous equipment and materials or is being carried out in a laboratory environment. As part of the Research Governance procedure a Risk Assessment must be completed for each project.  Please contact the School’s Research and Enterprise Services Office for a copy of the documentation. A health and safety orientation will be conducted as part of the induction programme and students are required to complete computer based training on ‘Introduction to Health and Safety’ and ‘Display Screen Equipment (DSE)’.  It is the student’s responsibility to abide by the institutional Safety Policy, to observe safe-working practices at all times and to follow those procedures prescribed by their supervisory team.  Both the student and the supervisory team should observe the safety codes of the University and any special regulations within the School. The main supervisor will keep documentary proof that the student has been given this information (usually via the Student Activity Report).  Detailed instructions regarding safety regulations can be obtained from the Safety Officer within the School.

For full details of the University’s Safety Policies of see the following webpage .

In addition the School has a lone working guidance document for post graduate students and research assistants working at the Highfield campus. Please contact the School’s Research and Enterprise Services Office for a copy of the policy. All accidents or other risks to personal safety must be reported to the School’s Health and Safety Officer, Peter Fisk (on 023 8059 7884 or email [email protected] ).

• Students should have contact details of a colleague/supervisor with them, so that in the event of a problem they can call for assistance;
• Students working at the different sites should ensure they are familiar with local arrangements for security and safety;
• Students who collect data through face-to-face interviews and focus groups should also be aware of issues, which may impact on their personal safety when working off-site.

For health and safety reasons, staff and students are requested not to bring animals onto the premises, with the exception of registered assistance dogs.