The helping hand in bleak surroundings

Every year, a significant minority of students will face life events and circumstances outside of their control, which have a major effect on them and their university studies. These students often don’t know who they can turn to, or what support is available to them through universities.

For the majority of students, the three or four years they spend at university are fairly trouble free, and revolve around lectures, deadlines and of course going out with friends and having a great time. Unfortunately, students aren’t immune from the realities of life that affect everyone at some point. Bereavement, significant illness and personal issues hit students as indiscriminately as they do everyone else, and for young people often living on their own for the first time, this can be especially hard to deal with.

Universities have dedicated student support teams, who exist to help students facing circumstances such as these. They provide a range of services, such as counselling, but they specialise in advising students of the options available to them around their courses. These include extensions on deadlines and extenuating circumstances – where the personal situations of affected students are taken into account when marks are given to ensure that students aren’t penalised unfairly for personal difficulties.

We spoke to one student who has had to make use of these services as a result of a series of unfortunate circumstances during her time at university. She asked that we give her a false name so she can’t be identified so we have called her Gemma.

Gemma first came into contact with student support when her Gran died. She says she was very close to her Gran and the loss affected her badly.

“My gran raised me when I was small and we were always very close. She died from cancer and I would go back every single weekend to see her during the time she was ill. When she passed away it badly affected me. I became withdrawn and depressed, I hated going out of my flat or speaking to anyone, and I just felt really low and miserable all the time.”

Gemma’s experience of student support came when they contacted her after she had missed a lot of classes. They invited her to get in touch and offered any support they could.

“I was in two minds to begin with, but in the end I decided it was best to get in touch. It was nice in a way to know they cared about me, but they also made me feel that all wasn’t lost and there was a way through this.”

“I spoke to them on the phone, and they immediately invited me in for a one to one. Out of this they arranged for me to see a bereavement councillor and they also got me extensions on my assessments so I didn’t fail. When my assessments went in they gave me extenuating circumstances so that my marks wouldn’t be as badly affected. It all made such a difference, it made me feel that people cared and I could still do well in my degree.”

Gemma has now graduated with a 2.1, something she says she would never have done had she not had the support when her Gran died. She recommends anyone going through difficult circumstances contacts their student support team for help and advice.

"They're all so lovely and helpful, they really care about you and you doing well. They made me feel like it wasn't the end of the world and I hadn't messed up badly. Now I've graduated I feel so proud, the world's at my feet and it's all down to the help I got off uni when everything was up in the air. If you're having it tough I really suggest you contact them, because they do care and they will help.

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