University life is full of opportunities, but it doesn’t come without its challenges. Even for the brightest students, adapting to a new environment and way of living can take time and additional support. That’s why Kent has a team committed to providing this and improving access to learning. Head of Student Support and Wellbeing, Lee Fellows, is here to tell us more.
When might students use your services?
Our services offer support, advice and guidance to students who are living with a disability or long term health condition. This includes students that have existing or emerging mental health conditions. We support our students by making sure they are getting the right advice, help them with coping strategies and also put in place reasonable adjustments to meet any academic needs they have. A student struggling with their emotions, or who needs someone to speak to when they feel things aren’t right, can speak to us. As well as Mental Health Advisers and Disability Advisers we have a team of counsellors and a specialist wellbeing team that supports students reporting distressing incidents such as harassment. We also take the lead in supporting students who may be care experienced, estranged or care givers themselves. All of our services are free to use and we offer a warm and supportive environment to all that need some help.
How have you had to adapt to meet changing student needs in recent years?
We are constantly having to evolve our service and encourage all students to give us feedback as it helps us to learn what we are doing right and wrong. In general, students are far more comfortable now in getting help and telling us about the conditions or worries and this has led to a huge increase in demand for our services. We have also seen an increase in students with more than one complex disability or condition. Our professional and fully qualified teams are adept at adapting to evolving needs. Recent changes include extending our specialist team and the introduction of Report and Support which is a tool through which students can access support if they have been the victim of a serious incident like harassment. We have also offered more appointments online since the covid-19 pandemic.
How does Kent ensure that support services are inclusive and accessible to all students?
We are the team that believes passionately in inclusivity and regularly monitor and review our services and policies. We also work with Kent Union and the Wellbeing Student Advisory Board who help us to shape what we do and how we do it. We help set the guidance on making the university accessible (digital accessibility policy and Kent Inclusive Practices) so it is important we are following what we advise.
How do you work with other teams — like academic staff or campus services — to support student wellbeing holistically?
As a campus-based university, we are lucky to be able to provide students with a safe and welcoming environment in which to study in Canterbury and Medway. My team works across the University to ensure support is in place and reasonable adjustments are understood and adhered to. We go from working with colleagues in Estates to ensure accommodation is accessible, right through to educating individual Academic Advisors on how to make a 1- 2-1 setting more comfortable for neurodivergent students. We sit on committees across the university to ensure that student wellbeing needs and support are always considered. Our staff are committed and will go the extra mile for students.
Are there any initiatives that have proved especially popular?
We have some really good autism social groups that have proved popular such as the summer pre arrival induction days for students with Autism. This allows soon-to-be students to come onto campus and spend time with the Disability team when it is quieter and allows them to meet others in a more relaxed environment that is not so busy. We also have board game afternoons, an ADHD running club and an ongoing wellbeing café. We have more planned going forward, and there’s lots going on beyond the scope of our team – including our Kent Community Oasis Garden where students can get involved in growing sustainable food, biodiversity, gardening, community action and mental health and wellbeing activities.
What’s one thing you wish more students knew about the support services available to them?
That our services are available for ALL students, there is often a misconception that we are just for undergraduate students. This is not true we are here for postgraduate taught and postgraduate research (PGR) students too. We have been working closely with the Graduate College to improve our own understanding of the PGR experience so we are better at supporting them and this year we are introducing a new PGR-specific set of reasonable adjustments.