Supporting you
Academic Support
We provide dedicated support to our students both academically and pastorally, to help you to reach your full potential.
Unlike many universities and colleges we have a specific first year module (either Higher Learning Skills or Professional and Academic Skills depending on your course). This covers the academic skills that you will need to get the most out of your studies with us.
We also have a dedicated library support team that will be on hand to help build your academic skills. If you need some extra help, our library team run a series of workshops on topics, such as
- How to reference in your assignments
- Understanding the Learning Objectives
- Searching for Resources (how to use academic journals, etc.)
- How to proofread your work
We’ll provide details of how to sign up to these in your first term.
You will also be allocated an academic tutor who will meet with you three times during the academic year to make sure you are settling in well into college, to check on your progress through the year, and to help with any concerns or worries that you may have.
Accessing our Blackboard virtual learning environment
You will be able to access Blackboard, which includes details about your course, and the first-year modules once you have enrolled with us. This will also be the main way, along with through your student email address, in which we will contact you when you are a student.
Pastoral Support
We understand that studying a university-level programme can be challenging, and at times stressful.
In the Higher Education team at the college, we have two dedicated Tutorial Supervisors to provide further support to students:
Hannah Brown (Hannah.brown@ccn.ac.uk ) can help with things like how to stay on top of your workload and help to address any other issues that may be affecting your studies. This may include ensuring that you are able to access support services within the college, such as the well-being team, or to help you to apply for things like Reasonable Adjustments, if you have long-term issues affecting your studies, or Extenuating Circumstances requests, in cases where you are experiencing a short-term issue, so that you are not at a disadvantage compared to other students on your course.
Employability and Progression Support
Helen Temple (helen.temple@ccn.ac.uk ) will help you to build / identify your employability skills as you progress through your course and assist you with your next steps be that onto further study, or to advance your career.
Both Helen and Hannah will introduce you to the support they offer as part of the induction process once you have enrolled with us.
Soon after you start your course we will ask you to complete a Student Support Survey. This helps us to provide any support you might need as early as possible into your programme. Please look out for this and do take the time to complete it (we’ve kept it as short as possible). It really helps us, to help you!
Disabled Students Allowance (DSA)
We can also help students to claim for Disabled Students Allowance if you haven’t already applied for this through Student Finance England. Find out more on the government’s website, and Tutorial Supervisor Hannah will be happy to help guide you through this process.
Exam Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments
If you have any Exam Access Arrangements (EAAs) from previous studies or may need Reasonable Adjustments put in place for your studies and assessment, please let us know as soon as possible so we can look to get these in place at the star of your course. You can either do this at Enrolment/ Induction or contact our HE Tutorial Supervisor (Hannah Brown) prior to this to make them aware (Hannah.Brown@ccn.ac.uk). Any previous arrangements will not be rolled over to a Higher Education course, you will need to apply for them.
Help with IT
As well as fully-equipped computer facilities, we also offer free access to Microsoft Office365 for students during their courses with us. This means that you can download key software such as Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint to your personal laptop or device, so there is no need to buy this software.
Library Resources
We have well-stocked libraries with both physical and electronic copies of the key texts that you will need for your course, so please don’t rush out to buy lots of books before your start with us.
You can view the reading list for your course here. A guide for external users can be found here.
Financial support
The college offers an HE Hardship Fund for students experiencing financial hardship. You can find out about this and a broad range of other financial support and advice here.
Council Tax Exemption
If you study full time, once you’ve enrolled the college can provide you with a council tax exemption certificate which you can pass onto your local authority.
Student accommodation
We have student accommodation at our Easton campus specifically for higher education students. Find out more here.