The Student Support Service is a dedicated team that supports students in IHSE. Having a dedicated team that knows the learners’ journey through the 5 years of their programme and their assessment structure helps us be responsive and reactive to students’ needs. For example, if a student can’t progress after assessment results release, they can be seen on the same or the next day. We have good visibility and branding within the Institute, so students know who to reach out to, and we have good links with Barts and the London Student Association, which helps us improve our services.
Students normally can book an appointment and speak to someone in under two days. It is a busy service and we had over one thousand appointments last academic year.
The support offered to students is varied: we offer financial advice through the Finance and Bursaries Manager. We also support students with extenuating circumstances and those with any specific requirements on clinical placements. We liaise with DDS to support disabled students, so they receive classroom and assessment adjustments, mental health support, one to one support from professionals and access to a study skills tutor, if they have learning differences.
Medical students have a sense of community at course level, so there’s an effort from us to send a strong message of when to recommend a friend or colleague to us. We run several projects, and in 2022 for example, ran a mindfulness and meditation course using VR sets, where students learned techniques to use at home, particularly at exam time which can be very stressful. Our focus is to avoid a point of crisis but where students do require specialist support intervention, we have good links with the central well-being teams (Advice & Counselling, Disability & Dyslexia Support) and we commonly signpost to NHS services to fully support students.
Due to the courses offered by IHSE, the team doesn’t work with many distance learners. We support online and in person, MBBS and MSc Physician Associate students who are on placement, away from campus, so the expertise developed in supporting these students might be a good starting point to build more support for distance learners, if needed.
I love working one to one with students, and now I’m doing more strategy and management, but there are interesting parts at senior level, writing policy and defining our strategy, which really impact students positively .I have been in post just over eighteen months and student feedback is very vocal and positive, for example on the hardship bursaries we offer. If students need to work part-time, we actively try to facilitate the continuity of this when on placement to ensure we make access to study as inclusive, compassionate and student friendly as possible.
We also make sure we collect feedback and data on the work we do with students, as there is greater demand for our services: the nature of their concerns, the time of year where there is greater demand, etc. We already made changes based on what we learned, for example offering support in the evening, as many students are on placement and are unable to access support during standard business hours. Students can also book appointments online, and we have seen greater attendance, as it is easier to book and manage appointments. It is great to see students benefit from these improved policies and strategies.
I am working with other institutes to review Student Support provision across the whole Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry in consultation with all institutes and with ACS and DDS. The report and recommendations will be shared with the Faculty Director of Operations and serve as basis for further conversations around how we can ensure Student Support across the faculty is consistent building on our experience and success at IHSE.
IHSE students who want to contact the Student Support Service can do so by emailing ihse-student-support@qmul.ac.uk.
I joined IHSE as Head of Student Academic & Pastoral Support in June 2022 having worked in many roles across several other Higher Education Institutions. I’m the first professional services staff member to take on the important role of institute lead for Student Support. I studied my undergraduate BSc Psychology at University of Nottingham where I was also a Students’ Union Officer, representing all LGBT+ students within the SU during my final year of study. I would later work as Student Welfare Manager for their School of Medicine, which has been enormously beneficial in taking on this exciting new role at QMUL. I’ve worked in student well-being for my entire career since I graduated in 2012 and supported thousands of students in that time, all with their own unique stories and challenges. I place a high importance on creating an inclusive culture within student support services, universities and the wider sector, recognising that a student’s well-being is directly linked to the extent to which they’re empowered to be their authentic selves whilst at university. I’m a proud member of the LGBT+ community myself and have worked extensively on creating policies that support trans and nonbinary students within the sector, contributing to policies at Nottingham, Middlesex and Kingston. The work I have done in this area has been recognised by Stonewall as examples of sector best practice and I was proud to introduce nonbinary gender recognition within our student records system at the University of Nottingham. I started at QMUL shortly before the sharp rise in the cost of living which has had, and continues to have, devastating results on some of our students. Along with other staff, I played a key role in creating a strategy to support our students through this period, which resulted in our new Special Hardship Bursary which so far has assisted more than 100 FMD students to weather this challenging time. Health students face particular challenges at the moment from multiple fronts and it’s therefore essential that we are prepared to support them throughout their studies as they go on to qualify as the clinicians the NHS desperately needs. I take very seriously our duty of care to our future doctors, physician associates and dentists. I plan therefore to build on the great initiatives already developed within FMD to create a more proactive, responsive student well-being strategy with a focus on embedding well-being skills and psychoeducation into the curriculum; embracing technology and innovation in delivering high quality student support services; cocreation of solutions to common support issues in partnership with our incredible students; and importantly ensuring we provide equitable support to all of our student population. “I grew up in a very conservative rural area of the UK where I never felt able to be my authentic self as a queer young person, which had a profoundly negative impact on my emotional well-being. At 18 I left my hometown and went to university, and everything changed – I felt empowered to be myself for the first time and I had access to university services where I felt understood and seen. I believe this is exactly what university should provide – a safe and inclusive environment for our students to explore who they are without fear, supported by excellent services and staff whilst receiving a world class education. It’s therefore an honour to lead IHSE’s student support provision and work collaboratively with excellent colleagues and BLSA/NHS partners to create a culture in which our students can thrive”.