WELCOME | ADVICE & SUPPORT | STUDENT VOICE | OPPORTUNITIES | SOCIAL EXPERIENCES | THE MONEY

Advice Service

The Students' Union (SU) provides free, independent and confidential advice and assistance to its members. We advise on a wide range of issues, covering academic, legal and practical matters.

We also provide opportunities: last year we worked with two student volunteer advisers, and a paid part-time Advice Service Intern, developing their skills and knowledge, strengthening their employability.

Advice and welfare support is absolutely crucial to the work of the Students' Union. Sometimes, things go wrong and you need to know where to turn in these times. For a whole range of support options, students can turn to our indepedent Advice Service.

As you can see from our headline statisics, we have really measurable impact available for the Advice Service. We follow up on clients we have supported to find out how our advice and support has enabled them to progress.

In addition to providing services to students, we also provide opportunities: last year we worked with 2 student volunteer advisers, and a paid part-time Advice Service Intern. Apart from helping to give us more time to support students in need of advice, our volunteers and our Intern developed their skills and knowledge, helping strengthen their employability for after University.

Some of our headline statistics...

We know we made a practical difference in

44

per cent of cases. In another

49

per cent we gave advice, including clarification of the options available, but it was left with the student to decide to proceed or otherwise.

In another

7

per cent of cases, unfortunately we made no practical difference.

During 2014-15, we've supported and advised

551

University of Greenwich students. (This figure doesn't include GK Unions, who operate an Advice Service for Medway students)

What our service users said about us...

"The advisor gave us all the information that I needed and more. All the questions that I had were answered by the advisor in a way that I understood, making my decisions easier"

"I was able to get positive regular advice that helped me sort out my issues"

"Information was clear, honest and precise"

“As the advice of the advisers were very detailed, they sent me an e-mail afterwards to outline everything we spoke about throughout that session. I thought it was very helpful”

“I would recommend this service to everyone as I was more than satisfied”

“My adviser explained all my options clearly”

Online Advice

The Advice Service webpages are full of useful content covering academic matters, the personal tutor system and wellbeing advice – and much more. There were a total of

16,468

page views on the Advice Service's website.

This includes a total of

12,175

unique page views across the Advice & Welfare pages

What our volunteers say about us...

Hatice Cokgezici

Student Volunteer Adviser, 2014 - present

I’m going to be a third year Law student this Autumn. I’ve been volunteering for a day a week as an adviser with the Students’ Union since 2014. I volunteered to help me get practical experience, actually putting into practice what I’m learning with real people with real needs. I help advise at our drop-in advice sessions with students, to help them decide what they want to do, and I refer on students needing more support to the advice staff.

Sometimes students are worried when they come to see us. We’ve helped students to recognise that they’ve got options, even with some of the difficult situations they’re in. By the time they leave us, they’re usually looking a lot more relaxed. Often something can be done about their problem, even if it can’t be done quickly. Students really appreciate the help we’ve given.

Personally, I’ve gained confidence in interviewing people, my general communication skills, researching a specific issue and drafting advice appropriate to the students needs. All of these are skills which will help me get work after University.

Ayisha Patel

Student Volunteer Adviser, 2013-14

I volunteered for the Student Unions’ Advice Service as a chance to gain practical experience, relating to my Law degree. The service is a great way to help students with any difficulties they may have been facing or avoiding due to lack of support or not knowing who to ask for help. The type of advice we were trained to give varied from; academic, housing, financial, family and personal difficulties. The training process was invaluable, we were taught about providing general advice including how to approach clients, extract relevant information from the interviews and provide advice, all of which is necessary for a career in the legal industry. My favourite part of the legal advisor scheme is having the opportunity to interview and advise real clients. Although interviewing clients can be quite scary the team organising the scheme is really helpful and approachable, making its comfortable for a volunteer to ask them any questions.

My opinion about volunteering at the Advice Service is that it is an amazing opportunity to gain real and practical experience, which is great stepping stone for those hoping to start a career in the legal sector.

Client Case Studies

We constantly follow up on our clients and ensure that the support we have provided them with is still working for them. We remind them that they are able to seek our support again if they need it. Names have been edited for anonymity purposes.

Andy was a Council tenant, and a full time student. He was looking after his brother, who suffered from long term mental health problems. Andy was being chased by bailiffs for unpaid Council Tax. Full time students aren’t usually liable, but because his brother wasn’t a student, Andy had to pay 75% of his full Council Tax without any additional support. Andy was struggling to pay this, his rent and his essential living costs.

We negotiated with the Council to call off the bailiffs and to put any action on hold while we looked into his case. We helped Andy prepare a budget, and made a realistic offer of £20 per month towards his arrears. The Council refused, telling Andy that they had ‘no discretion’ to take less than £200 per month towards the debt. We complained to the elected Leader of the Council and to the Chief Executive, warning them that their recovery practices breached good practice guidelines, and that if they insisted on taking further action, there was a good chance that the Magistrates Court would write off the whole debt, leaving Andy with nothing to pay. The Council eventually backed down and agreed to our original proposals of £20 per month towards the debt. We also referred Andy to available hardship funds. Andy still had the same debt to pay, but without the constant fear of bailiffs threatening to take his belongings if he couldn’t afford their excessive demands. We helped Andy manage financially, and in doing so, we helped him be able to keep looking after his brother.

Becky was threatened with eviction by her Housing Association landlord for getting into rent arrears. She came to us three weeks before the eviction was due. She and her family were facing severe hardship. We tried negotiating: the Housing Association refused to call off the eviction. So we helped Becky apply to Court to suspend the eviction. We helped her get £1000 discretionary funding from the University, and £350 Discretionary Housing Payments from her local Council, reducing her rent arrears to under £300. The Court agreed to suspend her eviction. We helped draw up a budget for affordable repayments of her debts without leaving her with insufficient money to support her family. Becky’s been able to progress with her studies while we helped stabilise her personal situation. Becky’s now on track to complete her studies with a professional qualification and get paid work.