Starting at University can be a stressful time for all students. The first weeks can be very confusing, with new people to meet, finding your way around the campus, enrolling on your course, and moving into accommodation.

Induction this year is online, and starts on the Monday following ‘A’ level results and continues to the third week in September.  Induction will include a series of recorded content from across professional services and academic departments about what is on offer to students.  We also hope to offer live chats with academic or professional services staff either in groups or, if more appropriate, 1:1.

There will also be an opportunity to complete a Personal Development Plan (PDP) on line, before starting your course, to get you thinking about your own personal and academic development and areas where you might want to seek additional support and advice.  The PDP gives you a second opportunity to tell us about a disability, mental or physical health condition, or learning difference that may impact on your studies, if you have not already done so through the application process. This information will be passed to Disability and Mental Health services and someone will contact you to find out more about any arrangements you may need and advise you of help which is available.

If you are anxious about starting your course, members of  Disability and Mental Health services would be very happy to speak with you before you start to talk through any concerns.  This can be via video link, e.g. Zoom, what’s-app, telephone or face to face. We can also arrange for you to visit campus if you want to look around, which you might find particularly helpful if you have Autism/Asperger’s, ADD/ADHD, visual loss, mobility difficulties or mental health difficulties.

This year, because of Covid 19 we are providing a blended approach to learning, comprising pre-recorded on-line sessions, live on-line sessions using Zoom and some face to face opportunities in a Covid secure environment.  If you feel you will need any particular arrangements or reasonable adjustments for your learning, please contact us as soon as possible.

The sorts of reasonable adjustments which can be made available in this environment are:

• Where sessions are pre-recorded they are usually available through Moodle, so you can listen again.
• Live on-line sessions are not usually recorded because of confidentiality issues, particularly where students are participating from their own homes, but a note taker can be made available where required.
• The University has introduced a policy on recording and lecture capture. Our policy is currently opt out, with plans to move towards lectures being more comprehensively recorded by September 2021.
• In the meantime the University has a Audio Recording policy for disabled students.
• The university provides information to staff about making on-line learning materials accessible.
• We also encourage academic staff to make slides available to students in advance of taught sessions.

Related pages:

Disability and Mental Health Services: Application and Admission.

Campus Accessibility

Accessible accommodation on site.