Your Voice, Our Actions: Student Services

Thank you to all students who took the time to complete one of our Student Voice surveys this academic year. We really appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback.

Check out the some of the updates our Student Services teams are making in response to your Student Voice:

Wellbeing and Mental Health  

Your Voice: Mental Health and Wellbeing services should be more widely promoted. 

Our Actions: 

We’re continuously looking for additional ways to increase promotion of our Mental Health and Wellbeing services for all students. In addition to our usual promotion methods (newsletters, UoC app, digital screens), for the next academic year we’re looking to promote these services via additional channels, including: 

• Increased communications for applicants  
• Regular online awareness sessions for all students and staff
• Posters in key areas at all sites
• QR codes to support pages across sites
• Information leaflets at all Connect Hubs

We’ll also soon be opening our new Student Services Hub in Binks at Exton Park. This new Hub will provide a central drop-in space for you to get more info or one-to-one on the day support. 

Your Voice: We want more trauma-informed support and support for students with complex needs and backgrounds. 

Our Actions: 

We agree about the importance of trauma-informed and inclusive student support. The Wellbeing and Mental Health team is delivering training in this area to Safeguarding Co-ordinators and rolling out training across all of Student Services.   

Student Experience 

Your Voice: Student Services should be clearly promoted. 

Our Actions: 

We recognise the importance of clear communication and understand that clear signposting can help ensure students know where to seek support when needed. Our aim is to always ensure information is easy to understand and the support available to students is clearly highlighted. This year, student feedback has helped us to streamline our marketing and promotional material to ensure it’s simple, specific and easy to understand.  

Your Voice: We want more support for commuting students, particularly those that need to travel a long distance. 

Our Actions:

We’re currently developing an enhanced range of resources and support for commuting students, building on our existing provision and the specialist support available through Student Services. This includes the development of new resources to better support students travelling longer distances to campus, and guidance materials for staff to help them identify and respond to the needs of commuting students. These developments aim to strengthen the overall experience, accessibility, and sense of belonging for students who commute to the University.  

This year, the University has also invested in additional study spaces for students to use before, in between or after lectures which will benefit commuting students. These include the new Study Space in Binks and extending our PG study space in Seaborne for final year UG use.  

When creating the timetables for the next academic year, we will aim to limit the gaps between lectures and where possible, avoid just scheduling in one lecture per day.  

Your Voice: You should have a help desk where students can get the right information.   

Our Actions: 

We already have a central Student Services helpdesk in place which is available: 

• Phone: 01244 511550 
• Email: studentservices@chester.ac.uk  

Opening hours:  

• Monday to Thursday: 9am-5pm 
• Friday: 9am-4pm  

Feedback about this centralised approach has been positive this year and is something we will continue to offer for the next academic year.  

For the 2026/27 academic year, we’ll also have a new Student Services Hub in the Binks, Exton Park. This new Hub will have lots of useful information about the support we offer at the University and give you the option to speak to the team in person if you have any questions.    

Your Voice: We want more opportunities for international students to connect – sometimes we feel lonely at the start of our course.  

Our Actions: 

Supporting the integration and overall experience of international students remains one of our key priorities. In response to this feedback, including ISB results, a review of the current orientation and induction offer is currently underway. This includes a review of communications (such as the International Student Handbook) with a focus on providing clearer, more accessible information on opportunities for students to meet one another and build friendships.  The review is focused on identifying what is working well and where further enhancements can be made, with the aim of strengthening connection, engagement, and community-building further in the next academic year.  

Your Voice: We want more events and opportunities outside of Exton Park.

Our Actions:  

We’ll continue to work collaboratively with key contacts across all sites and across relevant departments during the planning of student activity programmes to ensure that, wherever possible, activities are accessible and scheduled at suitable times for students at all sites. 

Your Voice: Events should be promoted more widely.

Our Actions: 

In addition to having all student events visible on Portal and in the UoC app, student events will also be advertised on the main university website from the next academic year, helping to improve visibility. Individual events along with a link to all event listings will continue to be included in the Student Shout Out newsletter which gets sent to all students once a week, and across Student Shout Out’s social media pages.  

Money & Finance 

Your Voice: We need more financial support. 

Our Actions: 

We already have the Your Money Hub which is a central service which all students can access to discuss their financial situation. Our team of Student Money Advisers work with our students to understand their situation, create a plan to help them move forward and offer a number of interventions to support students during periods of hardship. All students can access the Your Money Hub by contacting our Student Services Helpdesk – studentservices@chester.ac.uk  

Your Voice: We want to hear more about student discounts.

Our Actions: 

We will continue to regularly update our Your Money Portal page with lots of useful information to help our students manage their money at university. This does include information on student discounts, budgeting skills and everyday savings. We’re always looking for ways to provide more useful information and will take this suggestion into account. 

Disability & Inclusion 

Your Voice: We want more support and specific activities for disabled students.

Our Actions: 

Throughout this academic year, we have run a number of events specifically for disabled students, such as Disabled Students’ Allowance sessions, along with events with other teams across the University, including Chaplaincy, CSU and Sport and Active Lifestyle. For the next academic year, we will continue to run specialist sessions and increase our provision if possible. 

Your Voice: We want all lectures to be recorded.

Our Actions: 

The Disability & Inclusion have been working with the Centre for Academic Innovation and Development around the ‘Educational Recording Policy’ voicing Disabled students’ needs and inclusivity with this space. We hope to have an update on this topic soon. 

Your Voice: Inclusion plans should be considered before the start of the new term 

Our Actions: 

We always encourage students to engage with the support process ahead of joining the University through things like applicant emails, Open Days and Applicant Days. We will continue to ensure this messaging is included in any pre-arrival communications. 

Your Voice: We need more accessible bathrooms in Seaborne Library, Exton Park 

Our Actions: 

Through out summer Estates work, we are creating a new accessible changing room and new bathrooms in Seaborne Library. These should be open in time for the new academic year.