Have you made the most of the support available to you at university or are you wondering what’s accessible to you before you start your course?
Hopefully, this 2-minute read can answer most (if not all your questions) about the Student Services at the University of Bath!
My name’s Jordan and I’m currently studying MSc International Development, Social Justice and Sustainability and I completed my undergraduate degree at a different university also in the UK. While I was studying, some major, unexpected, events happened that made me realise I needed support and had no idea how to access it, if any was even available. Thankfully, I was able to get the help I needed but wished I had known about it sooner instead of searching for it in a panic. When I applied to Bath, I knew that access to such services would be crucial to my success and did plenty of research ahead of time.
The Student Services team can be one of your first points of contact with the university and can give practically any advice regarding disability support, financial issues, counselling, mental health, and international advice.
They can also give you general advice when navigating life in Bath and on your course. If there’s something that they don’t feel they can help you with, they can put you in the right direction.
In Student Services, mental health is more than a buzzword. Through their Counselling & Mental Health service, you can access free short-term psychological therapies through meetings with counsellors or mental health advisors as well as providing access to workshops, courses, and self-help resources.
After an initial consultation, the Counselling & Mental Health Service can help you tailor and develop a plan to handle whatever it may be that you’re finding difficult. These difficulties can be anything from low-mood, sleep problems, exam stress, procrastination, anxiety, loneliness, and more. Even if you can’t identify how you’re feeling, Student Services can help with that, too.
Find out how to get an initial consultation here.
The Student Service team can also offer realistic, practical advice and way to find additional income throughout your degree. The Student Money Advice Team can advise you on how to better manage your money as well as what financial assistance you may be entitled to. Such advice can relate to budgeting, how to handle unexpected costs and information to be considered for after you graduate.
In some instances, they can give you short-term loans or financial assistance through the University of Bath Hardship Fund. There is also additional support for care leavers, estranged students, refugees, and students with caring responsibilities.
The Disability Service can provide specialist advice, support, and information for, both, applicants and current students. They can liaise with your academic department to recommend adjustments to your study, help in applying for 1:1 support, financial support, and equipment.
They also provide advice on the transition to university life with a disability and information regarding the accessibility at the University of Bath. The team is also there for staff, so they are better able to work with students who have a disability.
The service works with students who have a broad range of needs such as autistic spectrum disorders, mental health difficulties, specific learning difficulties, sensory long-term health conditions, sensory impairments, and more
- Anything & Everything Else!
As you can tell from these points, there’s a major benefit to having all of these support services under one roof as they can easily intertwine, but there are things that you may need help with that haven’t been explicitly addressed in this short blog. The good news is that the team can most likely still help you with most problems, even if this means signposting you to someone who can better advise you!
Make no mistake, the Student Services team is there no matter how big or small the problem may be!
Try not to wait until your problem feels unmanageable to seek support or compare your problems to others. Not all solutions are the same and support doesn’t equate to a failure in any sense but rather that you’re making use of all the tools that are accessible to you.
The Student Services helpdesk is open between 9.30am and 4.30pm Monday-Friday via email (studentservices@bath.ac.uk) and telephone (01225 383838).
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