Academic support

You may have already heard that university requires you to be a lot more independent than at school or college, or been told that lecturers won’t chase after you for work in the same way that teachers may.

There is a little truth in this - university is different from school or college - but a lot of support is available. The examples below are all from SOAS, but most universities will offer similar support too.

Academic support before you start at SOAS

We offer a Student Success Conference for students who are part of the first generation in their family to go to university, and for mature students.

The conference takes place just before the start of your degree and aims to equip participants with the skills for success to make a flying start at SOAS in recognition that students from these backgrounds may have had less access to informal networks of advice and guidance that can support with the transition to university.

The conference includes the opportunity to attend lectures, experience collaborative student learning, academic skills sessions, careers workshops and more!

When you study at SOAS, your degree will be based in a particular department, and there are two key elements of academic support available in your department.

Your academic advisor is the first point of contact for any personal or general academic issues you might be having, and you’ll be assigned to an academic advisor automatically every year. They will set up meetings with you every so often, but you can also get in touch when you would like their support.

Your academic advisor can help with things like settling in to SOAS as a new student, provide general support and guidance, and help you to monitor your progress, and personal and professional development.

Secondly, your department will have a named Student Support Officer who you can contact with questions, particularly about the administration of your degree or for more general questions than you might speak to your academic advisor about.

There is also support provided by fellow students. There is both Peer Mentoring and Collaborative Student Learning on offer at SOAS. 

• Peer Mentoring is support you can access when you are in your first year - you’ll be matched with a student in a year above you, who will share their support and advice with you.
• Collaborative student learning is an initiative where you work together with fellow students in your department to overcome any challenges in your course and progress together in developing your academic skills. This happens through weekly one-hour sessions which are led by students who have been trained to do so. It’s a great way to support each other as well as developing great employability skills too.

Additional academic support available when you need It

As well as the support mentioned above available in your department, there are a whole host of other members of staff across SOAS who can provide support related to specific areas of your studies.

Library support

University libraries are bigger than you might think - the SOAS library is spread across 5 floors! To help students get to grips with using the library in-person, and accessing the online materials, the Library offers 1-to-1 tutorials, and group training sessions. There’s also recorded training materials on research skills which SOAS students can access.

Study skills support

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement team offer a range of Skills for Success. These include a comprehensive range of online resources you can access whenever suits you on the SOAS virtual learning environment, and also one-to-one tutorials where you can discuss a specific topic (such as how to approach essay questions, or managing your reading, or critical thinking) with an expert. There’s also an online course where you can build your academic resilience even further. 

Information about all of these resources and more can be found at the Student Learning Centre. 

We know that even with all the support available at SOAS, sometimes students might be affected by unexpected events in their life which badly impact their ability to focus on their studies. If this happens, there is a process called ‘mitigating circumstances’ where you can apply for this to be taken into account (this can be done in lots of different ways, such as, for example, being given more time to submit coursework, or an additional chance to retake a failed exam).

You can get advice from this from your departmental Student Support Officer, or the Student Hub (a friendly team based on campus who can advise you on a range of matters and let you know where to find specialist advice).

Why you should make use of academic support

So, as you can see there is a wealth of academic support available to you when you study at SOAS. The benefits of accessing this support is that it will:

• speed up your transition to university study so that you can make a flying start
• help you to get where you want to go
• enable you to develop skills that will help with your studies and future career
• develop your academic confidence

Finally, please remember that the support is there to be used, so do make use of it!