Support available on my course

During my course I have received different types of support and wanted to make prospective students aware of these. 

At the start of my course, I was allocated a personal tutor. My personal tutor is someone I can email for support if needed and even to meet him/her for a meeting. I have found my personal tutor a great help while at University, and it’s nice to know that there is someone I can go to if needed.

Each module I do has a module leader. We can get in touch with module leaders via email at any time. Furthermore, for every module we also have a discussion board on learning central via the student intranet. This is where students can ask any questions they would like to, related to the module. Students can also decide to ask these questions anonymously. The discussion boards have been both helpful and popular, especially when deadlines are coming up. 

Lecturers are also a form of support on my course. You have a chance to ask lecturers questions before, during or after lectures. Our lecturers also sometimes facilitate our Problem Based Learning (PBL) sessions. 

On learning central there is not only the learning materials tab under each module, there is also a reading list tab under every module, which provides the essential reading list and the additional reading list too. The reading lists are linked up to the university library, which then provides an easy way to place an order on a book. I find reading lists are a really useful way to find out what books I need to take out of the library or buy, and it enables me to get the books well in advance of my deadlines. 

On my course we go out on several placements and we are allocated a halfway visit from a tutor, these visit us half way through our placements to see how we are getting on. If needed, you can contact your halfway visiting tutor for extra support throughout the placement. 

During the current pandemic, I have also received a lot of different support on my course despite the pressure on lecturers to quickly turn all teaching and learning virtual. We have been able to email tutors and lecturers for support if needed, we have also been able to ask questions on the discussion boards and lecturers have been active in replying to the questions added. In addition to this, I have also been able to have phone call support with my tutor and email him/her if needed too. I cannot thank the university enough for their continued support during the pandemic, I have felt very supported.

I hope this blog has given you a good insight into what support is like on my course. 

If you are interested in general support available at University please see my previous blog – Support available at University. Furthermore, if you have any questions about student life at Cardiff University or my course please contact me using the UniBuddy service.