No Images? Click here University Updates Welcome to your first newsletter of the new academic year. This issue is packed with information on support for your health and wellbeing as well as important things to note for your academic studies and some upcoming Unviersity news and events. If you have any feedback about this newsletter or other communications you receive from the University, please contact us. Updates to our campusesOver the summer we've been busy updating the Streatham campus with new study space, cafes, microwaves and over 400 brand new computers. The ground floor of Cross Keys at St Luke's campus is now open and our gyms on the Streatham and St Luke's campuses have brand new equipment. Wellbeing supportLooking after your wellbeing can have a big impact on your experience at university. Developing skills which can build your resilience can help you to cope with any challenges that you may face during your studies and keep you feeling at your best. Take a look at the Wellbeing Toolkit developed by the Wellbeing Service to help you think about your wellbeing and build skills which can help you make the most of all of the amazing opportunities available to you at University. Wellbeing Services: workshops and groups Wellbeing Services offers a broad range of workshops and groups to help support students. These include Wellbeing and Study Skills workshops including topics such as confidence and resilience, essay structuring, stress busting and time management for studying. We also have groups and courses such as an Anxiety Management Group, Mindfulness Course, Compassion Focused Course, Autism Social Group and Fatigue Social Group. Please see our Workshop and Groups web pages for more information. Please note that you need to be referred to attend some groups. Make sure your vaccinations are up to dateThere has been a rapid increase in MenW, a type of meningococcal disease in recent years in the UK. University students, particularly freshers, are known to be at increased risk of meningitis and septicaemia. The MenACWY vaccination is available to all under 25 years olds for free. There are also cases of measles in the UK and the only prevention is two doses of the MMR vaccine. Contact your doctors' surgery to check if you have had these vaccines and book an appointment if not. If you are registered with The Student Health Centre, you can book an appointment by calling 01392 676606 for a special vaccination clinic on Saturday 6 October. If you have registered with your home doctors' surgery over the summer or are not registered with a surgery, please remember to register/re-register with The Student Health Centre. Your safety: walking homeExeter is generally a safe place to live but it is always best to be aware of potential dangers and take some precautions, particularly when going home late at night. Let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back and never let your friends walk home alone or walk home on your own. January exams - get your exam adjustments sorted in timeExam dates are available on the website and the next exams are 7 to 12 January 2019. If you need specific exam arrangements due to a disability, learning difference or injury, you should book an appointment with Wellbeing Services now to ensure your exam adjustments and Individual Learning Plans are in place in time. You need to have attended an appointment by Friday 2 November so don’t delay, get in touch today. For mental health conditions, please complete our Mental Health Appointment Request Form. For any other condition (such as specific learning difficulties or physical health conditions) please call 0300 555 0444 to book an AccessAbility appointment. Please contact Wellbeing Services if you have any questions. Your safety: drink spiking You may have seen in the press that a Falmouth University student was recently admitted to hospital following a suspected drink spiking incident. The student is recovering well and the incident is being investigated by the police. Whilst drink spiking is never the fault of the victim and always the fault of the perpetrator, there are steps you can follow to minimise the chances of it happening to you on the Guild's website. Black History MonthOctober is Black History Month 2018. This is an amazing opportunity to celebrate the achievements of Britain's African and Caribbean communities and learn more about the culture and history of the African diaspora. There will be numerous events going on within the University and wider communities so make sure you check social media for updates but in the meantime, why don’t you test your history knowledge with this BHM quiz. Your Academic Personal TutorYour tutor is a named academic contact who you can talk to about your academic, personal and professional development. As a reminder, you and your tutor will talk at key points in your study, and meetings will be scheduled for this. These will focus on your transition into the next year of study, preparing for assessments, responding to feedback, and thinking about planning for your career or further study. You can also talk to your tutor if you are worried about an assessment deadline, are having problems with attendance, or have personal matters you think are affecting your studies. Watch our Student Guide to Academic Personal Tutoring. Register attendance at lectures on your phone or laptopUse the new Attendance tile on iExeter to sign in to all of your timetabled activities through our new Digital Check In service. We tested it last year with a selection of students who liked it, we hope you do too. Please contact your Info Point if you have any questions. Academic integrity and honestyAcademic integrity and honesty is a key part of higher education and is taken very seriously at the University. Turnitin is the computer programme we use to check for similarities in written work against material within its database (such as texts and publications) to help us identify possible cases of plagiarism. This year, more courses will be using Turnitin for submission of written assignments. To avoid any issues, please ensure any material you use is appropriately referenced or attributed to the original author. You can read more about this in the Academic Honesty module on ELE which shows in your course list or in Chapter 12 of the Teaching Quality Assurance Manual. Please contact your Academic Personal Tutor if you have any questions. New digital library resourcesAlmost £1m was spent by the Library this summer on acquiring significant new online resources for the University. These include e-books, e-journal back issues and large numbers of digitised archives. The archives cover newspapers from the UK, the Americas, Russia, South Asia and the Caribbean; the full collection of the State Papers Online; specialist archives on African and Irish history, LGBTQ history and culture, crime and punishment, 18th century drama and the archives of the East India Company. For more information and to get access, see the Library’s A-Z list of all resources available. Need a letter confirming student status?You can generate official documents to confirm your student status for things such as your bank account and council tax by going to the Student Records and Registration tile on iExeter. You can then choose 'Generate Self Service Letters' and choose the letter you need to download it as a PDF with a stamp and signature. Please contact SID for help or hard copies of letters. 1-1 academic skills supportAre you ready for the upcoming academic year? Support in academic writing, planning or even time management is available for eligible students. Find out if you are eligible and apply. More study space, cafes and support for Amory and Peter ChalkThe University has been working with students to develop hubs around the campus to help improve access to the support you need throughout your studies. Suggestions and comments from students have been fed into planning these new facilities. Get support from our graduatesOur graduates (also known as alumni) can help you in many ways. For example, you can invite a graduate to do a talk or workshop to benefit your Society or you can apply for funding from the Alumni Annual Fund. The first round of applications for this year's funding closes on 28 October so apply as soon as possible. New student residences updateDevelopment works have started on our Streatham Campus for our new on-campus student residences, Moberly and Spreytonway, due to open in September 2020. Moberly is located between Birks Grange Village and Duryard and Spreytonway, is located at the end of St. German’s road. More information can be found on the project pages, or if you have any questions please contact residencefeedback@exeter.ac.uk Interested in postgraduate study?Our next postgraduate open days are coming soon - you can book your place now for the Streatham (Wed 14 Nov) and Penryn (Mon 19 Nov) events. Hear from current Masters and PhD students, find out about scholarships and funding, talk to staff about your options and enjoy a coffee on us. Loans for Doctoral-Level study now availableIf you are thinking of doing a postgraduate research course at doctoral level (for example a PhD), you can now apply for a student loan to help finance your study. Find out more about the Doctoral Loan scheme on the government website and information about Doctoral and PhD degrees available at the University of Exeter can be found on the postgraduate research webpages. Get info on places to Eat and ShopThe University's Eat and Shop team provide information on places to eat, drink and shop at the University. During the next few weeks, we have loads of goodies and competitions running so be sure to get social with us on Instagram @eatandshopexeter and sign up to our newsletter to find out more. Deals in the Streatham Campus bookshopBlackwell's Bookshop, located in the Foyer of the Great Hall sells all your course textbooks. The bookshop is running a Student Price Match Guarantee Promotion, which matches the lowest new official price on Amazon, Waterstones or WHSmith, ensuring you can buy your texts at the lowest UK prices. The bookshop also sells and buys second hand books. Professionalisation of our Postgraduate Teaching Assistant rolesAs you may know, our postgraduate students often support your learning as teaching assistants. To ensure that they have the same opportunities and employment conditions as our other staff members and based on feedback from our postgraduates, we've now developed a range of contract types to suit the needs of our Postgraduate Teaching Assistants. Follow the University of Exeter on Chinese social mediaWe have an official WeChat and Weibo account for the University of Exeter. Follow us by scanning the QR codes below. You can also search for us ‘ExeterUni’ on WeChat or ‘UniofExeter’ on Weibo. Aspiring undergraduate researchers, exhibit your work!This year’s Undergraduate Research Showcase is now open, and is your chance to share your exciting research as a poster, abstract or both. The two winning posters will attend a national student exhibition in Parliament in March 2019 and the two winning abstracts will receive places at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research in April 2019. The showcase is open to students across all disciplines and campuses, and your research can be from a project on your course or any other University activity you have been part of. More information is on the Showcase website. Boost your employability with our new online training and development portalMy Career Zone Digital is our new online training and development portal. It includes free Microsoft Office training, E-Learning courses on topics such as Business Numeracy and Negotiation, assessments on your personality and skills, as well as sector reports to help boost your commercial awareness. Access the platform through My Career Zone. Exeter Student Ambassador Scheme: apply nowWe are looking for current students who would like to share their experiences with others, to join the Exeter Student Ambassador Scheme. Student ambassadors work on a wide variety of paid jobs (e.g. promoting their subject, campus tours, open days, workshops with schools and mentoring), and are able to increase their employability and skills while doing so. Find out more and apply by Friday 19 October 2018 at 17:00. Student-run scheme supports ambitions of children in careA student-run outreach scheme which supports the development and ambitions of local children-in-care is looking to recruit new mentors. Avolve is the first scheme of its kind in the country and offers one-to-one mentoring sessions, community networking and educational public awareness events to secondary schools in Exeter. Their mentoring programme focuses on improving the academic attainment, attendance, attitudes and interpersonal skills of Avolve's mentees, to give them the best possible foundation from which to enter the world outside of the care system aged 18. The scheme is expanding to cover four schools this autumn so if you would like to get involved please contact avolve@groups.exeterguild.com. Careers and Placement Fair - 23 October, 11:30 - 15.30Come along to the Careers and Placement Fair sponsored by Teach First in the Great Hall and Sanctuary, Streatham Campus. Featuring over 80 exhibitors from a range of sectors offering internships, placements, graduate positions and further study opportunities. Open to students of all years and disciplines. STEM Careers Fair - 6 November, 11:30 - 14:30Check out the STEM Careers Fair sponsored by Newton Europe in the Great Hall and Sanctuary, Streatham Campus. Featuring more than 80 organisations offering STEM-related opportunities including internships, placements, graduate roles and further study. Open to students of all years and disciplines. Mary Harris Memorial Chapel Diamond Jubilee - Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 October Business Meets Philanthropy - Thursday 11 October, 18.30 Mercure Rougemont Hotel, Exeter Make your business idea a reality at Exeter Startup Weekend - 12 to 14 October Kamila Shamsie - Creative Dialogues 'in conversation' series - 18 October, 19:00-20:30, Alumni Auditorium, The Forum, Streatham Campus Prevent event - 31 October, 12:30 -14:00, Streatham Court C Russell Group Roadshow - 6 November, 11:30-15:00, The Forum, Streatham Campus Waking up to Planetary Health 2018 - 7 November 2018, RILD Building, Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital Tell us what you think of this newsletter: Get in touch with your feedback or news stories at: studentcomms@exeter.ac.uk |