TUN feedback - Student Support

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_{Please note: comments and responses may have been edited. Information was correct at time of response but may have been superseded. We publish the comments in the language in which they have been submitted and the University's responses bilingually.}

 23/24 Semester 1

• REF: 66-2302-640627 - Reducing Kitchen Anxiety

  Your comment: I find a lot of people have kitchen anxiety. Maybe some social skill support or student support regarding this would be nice, so more of us know we aren't alone. 

  Our response:

  Thank you for your comment.

  We put a cookbook (nosh books) into the kitchens at the beginning of the year and facilitate some cook-a-longs with nosh books throughout the academic year, this is to help support people flatmates to cook together and with others (virtually). We also facilitate the flatmate agreement meeting at the start of term to help all students discuss their needs for communal living. 

  To add; in recognising that such concerns relate to other social situations we are developing approaches to empower/enable students in overcoming challenges, building resilience through our mentoring networks as well as embedded wellbeing delivery which is being piloted in the Foundation Year this year as part of a module called ‘How to be a student’ – if successful we will be keen to roll out next year for all students.

 21/22 Semester 1

• REF:66-2111-9056129 - Communication skills for students

  Your comment: Please can information be shared with students about how best to talk to people who may normally struggle more (e.g. people with a hearing impairment, people who have a stammer etc.)? I feel like this is something many students aren't aware about, and it can lead to severe feelings of loneliness and isolation. (Preferably on social media instead or as well as through emails because not everybody reads their emails, but they might be more willing to read the information if it came up on their social media feed.)

  Our response:

  Thank you for taking the time to share with us this feedback – it is very much appreciated. This is an area of work that we are actively working on; in particular following the publishing of the recent ‘Supporting Students who Stammer in Higher Education report’. We are as such developing guidance and advice for students and staff within our community to help them understand the challenges that others may be experiencing but also to help increase their awareness and confidence to be supportive and help ensure that students with hearing impairments or who may have a stammer do not feel isolated or disconnected from others within our community. We will also be looking to build this into our Welcome and Transition Support arrangements for new and returning students each year from the 22/23 Academic Year. Your observation and experience is noted and we will be acting upon it.

 20/21 Semester 2

• REF:66-2102-712722 - Subtitles for recorded lectures

  Your comment: Making subtitles available for recorded lectures

  Our response:

  Thank you for your comment on lecture captioning submitted via Tell Us Now. There is a captioning option provided by the Panopto lecture capture system but we appreciate  the quality, particularly for scientific content, can be problematic and editing the captions is very time consuming. We are currently looking at other options to replace this service.

 20/21 Semester 1

• REF:66-2011-5663508 - Reading weeks and in-person learning

  Your comment: If there is another national lockdown and it coincides with some departments reading weeks, please consider cancelling the reading weeks and continuing with face to face learning. My mental health and well-being have never been as bad as they have this past week.

  Our response:

  We understand how the current situation can bring difficulties for some students Mental Health and Wellbeing and we encourage students to gain timely help and advice for any difficulty so that the most appropriate support can be put in place to help. The Student Wellbeing Service has a range of support options available to students to help with various levels of difficulties. Our support options range from online evidenced based 24/7 platform community chat and assessment, skills based modules; text, chat and telephone call line information or the choice to chat or meet with a qualified professional within the team. There is also crisis information and online forms for anyone to raise a concern about a student. Details about how to access the Student Wellbeing Service and what we deliver can be found here.

• REF:66-2011-3269109 - Practical training

  Your comment: Hi doing some work at the moment on programming and media. Would be great if the Uni could run some online weekend courses to get people ready for jobs using industry recognised tools. Max MSP programming would be fantastic for the creative sector. Ableton Live for performance and recording

  Our response:

  Thank you for your interesting and useful comment about the practical training you feel would be useful to offer to students. We will consider this very carefully and will discuss further with colleagues in the Department of TFTS and also in the Lifelong Learning Department as to what, or how, courses/training of this nature could be incorporated effectively in the future.

• REF:66-2010-328612 - Mental health and support services

  Your comment: We are a group of students concerned about mental health and support in the student population. We feel quite strongly that Student Support Services is not allocating their money correctly and is authentically advertising to prospective and new students that the support the offer is plentiful and good. In the following, we will touch on three points which we think should be considered in order to provide a better support network. Togetherall/Big White Wall We think that this is a waste of money by the University. It offers virtually no support, other than providing a platform to voice issues and feelings - which most people have access to through anonymous social media, such as Reddit, or their own diary. We don't know anyone who uses the platform, because it adds virtually nothing. It also encourages people who are lacking a social support system to stay online with other anonymous people, rather than going out to find people in real life. Regarding the little tips it gives on mental health and stressors - virtually all of these can be found through a quick google search. Paying for this service is a waste of money which could be allocated more effectively into other things. Investing in a specialized sexual assault counsellor The amount of times we have heard horror stories about how students issues and experiences regarding sexual assault have been handled by THE COUNSELLORS employed by Student Support is outrageous. Being dismissed, blamed, or compared to other survivors are common themes. At this point, the student community is well aware, that if you get assaulted, Student Support won't help you and you're better off getting help privately. This causes a reluctance to seek help in the students, and desperately needs to be addressed! One thing that could be done is to hire an experienced and specialized counsellor for those who have been (sexually) assaulted, and who is equipped to deal with trauma issues. Covid related mental health issues Student Support has not been doing enough to spread resources and hands-on tips of how to handle independent learning. The lack of lectures and seminars is a problem which leads to students maintaining bad sleeping patterns, which lead them to get behind on their work and have difficulty managing their social life with work. Student Support should circulate tips/links to websites and maybe offer 1 to 1 support for those feeling overwhelmed. This is related to the limited study space in the library (which closes at around 5!), which means that the vast majority of people have to study at home which might not be conducive to their studies. Guidance and help is needed to do this, especially for first years.

  Our response:

  We appreciate the time given to raising concerns about how Student Support and Careers Services deliver wellbeing support and we welcome ideas from students to help us consider the future delivery of services. The Student Wellbeing Service aims to deliver a range of advice and support via a stepped approach to support and skills development. Students may present to the Service with a low to moderate level of mental health & wellbeing or perhaps more severe and enduring possibly complex mental health issue. The services and support we provide and the way the Service operates reflects this diversity of need.

  Togetherall

  We appreciate that other social media platforms may duplicate certain aspects of Togetherall’s provision. However, as a Service it is important for us to ensure that we are mindful of the quality of the provision and the views of students represented by the Students’ Union. Togetherall is a Quality Care Commissioned (CQC), internationally recognised platform, and our subscription to it was supported and encouraged by Aberystwyth Students’ Union. Some 300 Aberystwyth Students use the Togetherall platform each month. Students spend on average 3.5 hours on the platform with nearly 100 assessments a month being completed. At a cost equating to approximately 70p per head we believe Togetherall provides a valuable 24/7 on line network and outlet for expression during these times when in person interaction is being restricted.

  Investing in a specialized sexual assault counsellor

  It is important that students impacted by these issues seek appropriate and specialist support and the Wellbeing Service directs students to such organisations as provide this. The University also offers free short term counselling (through an external provider) for issues that are not academic related. Any student who feels they have not received adequate support should contact the Student Wellbeing Service Manager in the first instance so that the matter can be investigated.

  Covid related mental health issues

  The Student Wellbeing Service is available to support, on a 121 basis, those students who are facing wellbeing issues in respect of Covid 19. In addition, specific information in respect of Covid 19 is available here. The Service also delivers a range of presentations/workshops to students on healthy behaviours (for example, sleep patterns) and links to additional resources to support healthy behaviours can be found in the A-Z of wellbeing section of the Wellbeing Service webpages.

  The University also provides student learning support through the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Further information can be found about learning support can be found here.

  A range of advice and guidance on using technology for learning is also provided by the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit based in Information Services and covers for example, issues such as using Blackboard and use of MS teams. Further details can be found here 

   

• REF:66-2009-932923 - Living and learning bubble

  Your comment: I requested that the people I live with and I should be grouped together in our lecturers as a safeguarding measure for preventing the coronavirus spreading. I was told this was not possible as the timetable had already been made but to fill in a tell us now form. I feel like this could be a very important measure that the University should take by grouping households on the same course together where possible. 

  Our response:

  Thank you for your comment regarding grouping together of students in living and learning “bubbles”. This was something to which the University gave careful consideration as part of our extensive planning for the return of students. The University has put in place a range of measures to mitigate against the spread of Covid, including detailed risks assessments for teaching, limiting the number of individuals in teaching rooms, enhanced cleaning regimes, one way systems and hand sanitising stations. As a consequence of this preparation, and taking account of logistical issues around the number of students and variety of modules available, it was decided to not pursue bubbles as an option.