Your Voice, Our Actions: Term 1 2025/26

At the University of Chester, we want to create the best experience for all students and we really value you taking the time to use your student voice to share your views, thoughts and opinions on what we need to change in order to achieve this.

On this page you can find actions taken by our central professional services teams as a direct result of your feedback.

Catering

Your Voice: There’s no cafe serving fresh coffee in Seaborne Library. 

Our Actions:  

• We’ve opened a brand-new café in Seaborne Library.
• It serves hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, cakes and snacks. 

Careers and Employability

Your Voice: The waiting times are too long for CV support. 

Our Actions:  

• 24/7 support CV support is now available for all students via CareerSet  
• We now offer ‘quick query’ and 30-minute appointments 

Your Voice: There’s not enough support to help students find part-time work.

Our Actions:

• In Welcome Week 2025, we held a Part-time Jobs Fair which was attended by more than 30 employers with part-time or seasonal vacancies.
• We will also continue to hold regular Employer in the Foyer events across our sites.

Academic Skills

Your Voice: There aren’t enough face-to-face appointments with the Academic Skills (ASk) team 

Our Actions:  

• We’ve increased ASk in-person appointments.  
• There are now new bookable weekly options to see an ASk adviser at all university sites. 

LIS

Your Voice: The Apple computers at Kingsway and Gateway House are slow and frustrating to use. 

Our Actions:  

• We’ve upgraded Apple computers at both sites to brand-new Mac Mini models featuring the latest M4 chips, with excellent performance. 

Your Voice: Moodle is slow and suffers from unscheduled downtime. 

Our Actions:  

• We’ve re-implemented our Virtual Learning Environment on brand-new hardware.
• We’ve improved Moodle’s reliability, performance, look and feel. 

Your Voice: The UoC app is slow, has issues with check-in and doesn’t show attendance history or timetables properly.

Our Actions:

• Our software engineers released our brand-new, bespoke mobile app on 1 September 2025. This app is designed to meet the University’s compliance requirements for attendance monitoring and offers students a much easier, more user-friendly app experience.
• We have improved the app by applying near real-time attendance history updates. We have fully re-designed the Portal timetable which now pulls seamlessly into the new mobile app. 

Your Voice: There’s a lack of books available for students studying in Shrewsbury.

Our Actions:

• We have recently implemented a discrete loanable collection of Education-related books at the Sports Village site to support student study.

Student Services

Your Voice: It’s difficult to book an appointment with Disability and Inclusion.  

Our Actions:  

• You now have more options… appointments available via: telephone, in-person, MS Teams, Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) drop-ins, quick queries and duty appointments.  

Your Voice: Sometimes academic staff don’t know what I need for a reasonable adjustment for my disability. 

Our Actions:

• We introduced a Standardised Inclusion Plan with key adjustments clearly listed at the top for easy access by academic staff.

Your Voice: Language used about my disability on my inclusion plan and emails about support can be confusing.  

Our Actions: 

• Our new Inclusion Plan template uses accessible and student-friendly language to help students understand and access their support more easily. 

Your Voice: There’s not enough in-person counselling on offer at sites other than Exton Park. 

Our Actions:  

• Counselling now available within a short distance of your chosen location in the UK. This includes home address or a university site.  You will be allocated to a counsellor within five days. 

Your Voice: We need a wider variety of accessible mental health support.

Our Actions: 

• We expanded our Wellbeing and Mental Health provision beyond one-to-one appointments to include a wider range of support options. There are group workshops, creative sessions, and enhanced collaboration with our NHS pathways. Students have the choice of a variety of support options and can access the most appropriate and accessible support for their needs. 

Your Voice: There’s not enough support for survivors of sexual misconduct.  

Our Actions:

• We have improved accessibility to our Sexual Violence Liaison Officer (SVLO) Service that now has daily appointments available with LimeCulture accredited SVLOs. 

Your Voice: There’s not enough support to help with the cost of living. 

Our Actions:  

• Our ‘Your Money’ Financial Support team offer a dedicated front-line service for all students.  
  Student Money Advisers offer an appointment-based service for one-to-one support on areas such as budgeting skills, navigating Student Finance, and dealing with debt.  
• You have access to a Student Support Fund to provide some extra financial help when you need it.* 
  *Eligibility criteria apply 

Your Voice: It’s difficult to know how to access support.

Our Actions: 

• We have invested in our Student Services Helpdesk to provide central, easy to access support for our students. The Helpdesk team can advise on several student support areas including Wellbeing and Mental Health, Disability and Inclusion, Financial Support, Sexual Violence Liaison Officer Service and Residential Life. The team can also signpost to other key services both inside and outside the University.  Students can contact the Helpdesk via telephone, by submitting an online enquiry form or dropping into our Info Point at Exton Park. 

Your Voice: International Enrolment queues and time spent enrolling are too long.

Our Actions: 

• The Student Experience and Study Visa team have hosted more Enrolment sessions to ensure students have more opportunities to attend at a time that suits them. Eight sessions have been hosted, and we also added session at Warrington, Birkenhead and Queen’s Park to make it easier for students at those sites to enrol.
  The layout of the event was improved, and more staff and student ambassadors were recruited to support students to complete their enrolment and speed up the process.  

Your Voice: International students don’t receive enough in-depth information 

Our Actions: 

• The Student Experience Team, alongside Race Advocates, developed an International Pre Arrival Support Module to help international students prepare to move and study in the UK. The module contains essential information, advice and guidance, video tours and more!
• Additionally, we hosted over 10 online sessions to help students find out more before they travelled.