Student Services
Student Services offers advice and support to ensure that your experience as a student is successful and fulfilling. Our services are available to undergraduate and postgraduate students of any background, protected characteristics, or stage/mode of study. Service provision will depend on individual needs and circumstances, including location of study. Please contact us (theasc@st-andrews.ac.uk) to discuss your needs in more detail.
The advice and support we provide empowers students to take an active role in managing their student experience. We encourage all students to develop a sense of personal responsibility for all aspects of their wellbeing. We promote individuality, open-mindedness and critical thinking, while respecting the diversity of our community.
Student Services provides advice and support in the following ways:
- Advice and Support Centre (ASC), an information centre for students
- Support plans for students with disabilities, including specific learning difficulties
- Student life and wellbeing advice
- Counselling and mental health support
- Financial advice and support
- Advice on academic issues
- Residential support and community building activities for students in University residences
Where appropriate we link in with external agencies in the local community.
At Student Services, we are committed to providing inclusive and diverse support. We recognise that some students may prefer to speak with an adviser who shares specific protected characteristics (such as LGBTQ+ or BAME) and where possible we will do our best to meet these requests while taking into consideration the availability, expertise and specialist training of our staff.
Assigning an adviser based solely on perceived personal identity can unintentionally reinforce stereotypes and overlook the diverse experiences within communities. Many individuals have intersecting identities, and focusing on just one aspect may not fully address the complexity of an individual’s lived experience.
Our approach is competency-led. We will carefully match you with an adviser who is trained and experienced in the areas that matter most to you. If you feel your assigned adviser is not meeting your needs, you can request a new adviser by emailing theasc@st-andrews.ac.uk or speaking directly with your adviser; they will be happy to discuss the possibility of referring you to another team member.
We recognise the need for comprehensive training across our staff teams, especially in areas like gender, sexuality, relationships, race, religion, disability, and cultural competency. To address this, all Student Services staff have received training in:
- Cultural Competency
- Trans Awareness
- Disability Awareness and Inclusive Practice
- Diversity in the Workplace
- Unconscious Bias
- Inclusive Language
- Awareness for Care-Experienced, Carer, and Estrangement issues
Some staff members have more specialised training in specific areas, for example Trauma Informed Response to Sexual Violence, and Gender, Sexual and Relationship Diversity Therapy and we regularly review and update our training programme. We can also provide information about specialist counselling and support organisations that focus on specific protected characteristics.
If you have any questions or wish to discuss this further, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We're here to support you.
Accreditation
Student Services Counselling, Wellbeing and Mental Health Matching Care has been accredited by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in partnership with the British Psychological Society.
Accreditation is awarded following a rigorous, externally audited process, including:
- measuring our service against 56 quality standards which assess whether a service is safe, well led, effective, caring and responsive to people’s needs.
- listening to students and staff feedback
- submitting to an all-day, on-site peer review
We are the first Scottish service of any kind, and one of three universities in the UK, to achieve this award.
