Deputy Registrar Stephen McAuliffe has written to Heads of Schools to outline a new range of support for users of Campus Solutions to help overcome any issues that staff or students may experience during the start of term period.

Support for Academic Staff
To support academic staff and personal tutors in responding to student queries or requests for help with Campus Solutions, Student Services has introduced three tiers of additional information.

• colleagues should initially refer to a newly published set of the most Frequently Asked Questions which should address the most common student queries
• if you can’t find the answer, please refer the student to the guidance information they have been sent via email or direct them to the upgraded Student Services Help webpages
• students can also complete an online form or have a virtual chat with Student Services staff during opening hours.

For urgent cases where a student presents a significant issue owing to registration problems, staff can use this dedicated form to raise the priority of the case, where it should be resolved within 24-48 hours. This route would be appropriate, for example, where a student who cannot pay their rent and is risking eviction because they cannot register and receive their student loan. Students with important but non-urgent issues should be directed to the other routes above.

Support for Students – Student Services Centres
Student Services has increased its digital capacity and introduced virtual chat to resolve more student queries than has been possible in previous years. Early experience with virtual chat suggests more issues can be resolved more quickly as students can be put off by queuing in-person. In a normal year, Student Services process some 1,600 queries each week, and it is estimated that they  can now resolve a further 300 enquiries each week.

To ensure Student Service Centres can remain Covid-secure, they have adopted a similar approach to teaching where some contact will be online and other contact can be scheduled to be in-person.  While Service Centres will host pre-booked appointments they will be closed to ‘walk-up’ enquiries, and instead staff will provide information and answer questions via outdoor stands.  These are open weekdays from 10am to 2pm on Portland Hill, outside Physics Building, adjacent to the Exchange on Jubilee and by the Barn on Sutton Bonington.

For more detailed student enquiries there we have four routes in place from self-help to individual appointments:

1. Firstly, students are encouraged to make use of the online materials found here which have been substantially enhanced from previous years so that students can follow what they need to do more easily.
2. If students cannot solve the issue by reading the advice, then the second step is via a new real-time virtual chat that connects a student with a member of staff directly. Students can access the chat from Student Services Help
3. The third step is to log the issue as a problem using an online form and this is available here. Where a student would benefit from or requests a phone call will be arranged with Student Services staff.
4. Finally, if the student’s query can’t be resolved online, by phone or virtual chat, then a pre-booked appointment will be made for them to attend a Student Services Centre.