Jumping into university can be overwhelming. New people, new environment, new study pressure, and sometimes you may feel you are facing a new chapter of your life alone. The good news? At the University of Manchester, that kind of loneliness is not expected to happen at all. There are a variety of support services available at uni; let’s take a closer look at them.

1. The first one is academic support. Each student is assigned an Academic Advisor, who is your first point of contact if you are struggling with study-related issues, or just feeling stuck. They will reach out to you at the beginning of every semester for you to book an appointment with them to talk about your grades, your progress, and anything you are concerned about. They are there for you throughout the whole semester to make sure you are happy with your uni life.

2. If you want to improve your academic skills, such as referencing, critical thinking, or essay structure, the My Learning Essentials workshops are helpful for you to explore. You can search on the webpage to explore different skill development workshops and book a suitable time slot to attend (they usually last for one hour). The staff there are happy to answer any questions you are unsure about. Not gonna lie, the skills I developed from an essay writing workshop that I attended during my first year have still been utilised in my final year writing.

3. In terms of future career development, the University of Manchester has an exclusive Career Centre to offer various career services for students. You can book appointments for CV reviews, mock interviews, internship advice, and networking events. Moreover, there is a new webpage called Student Circus, where you can find internship and graduate job vacancies, and especially for international students, there is a filter function for jobs that provide worker visa sponsorship. The earlier you start to think about what you want to do in the future, the better you can utilise all the uni resources and develop your skills.

4. Talking about international students, the University of Manchester has tailored an International Student Support Team exclusively to offer visa advice, different opportunities, and language support if English is not your first language.

5. Financial support and hardship funds are also offered for students who are struggling with their living costs. We all know that living in the UK is not cheap, so the uni provides emergency funds to apply for and also offers advice on budgeting if you need it.

6. Last but not least, there are a lot of student support hubs in different teaching buildings. Also, different majors have different student mentor and coach schemes formed by your class peers or senior peers who have been in your shoes to specifically help you in your major studies.

The Students’ Union also does a similar job by offering student representatives, societies, and wellbeing events. Joining a society can make you feel more connected and make your uni life easier.

University is challenging but designed with different support systems around you; the only step for you is to reach out. I hope you will explore them and feel that you are never doing this alone.

Written by Zixuan Nie, a current 4th year BSc Accounting with IPE student.

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