You said, we did – improving your experience at Edinburgh
Find out more about some of the changes we have made recently as a result of student feedback.
A more flexible Edinburgh Award Work Experience programme
The Edinburgh Award is a skills development programme that recognises students for getting involved in activities outside their degree programme.
Students told us that it can be hard to take part in opportunities like the Edinburgh Award when commuting or balancing commitments beyond university life. The Edinburgh Award team have developed a new version of the work experience award that students can complete at their own pace, to make it easier for more students to participate and benefit from the programme:
Enhanced careers support for international students
Our international students told us that they were finding it hard to access the careers support they needed.
The Careers Service has introduced Student Circus, a dedicated portal to support international students and graduates. The portal includes visa-verified UK roles, country guides for 40 international markets and 300+ blogs and videos to help students navigate their next steps.
You can access Student Circus and find careers information tailored for international students in one place, via our international student careers hub:
We have introduced a new payment platform for financial support, which means we no longer need to collect a student’s bank details before paying out to them. This means we can pay on the same day the student’s application is assessed, reducing wait times for support.
Visit the website or watch the video below to find out more about financial support available to all students:
We have also expanded our Rent Guarantor Scheme and can now accept leases that include utilities. This change will enable us to support far more students who need a guarantor.
You told us that late timetables, last-minute changes and uncertainty around course availability are making it difficult to plan your academic year.
To address this, we're working to provide a stable and accurate timetable for your whole academic year. Once in place, you'll get your timetable earlier, giving you more time to plan part-time work, caring responsibilities or commuting. We're also reducing last-minute changes and providing greater clarity on course options and availability, making it easier to choose and enrol onto courses available to you.
These changes will be introduced in phases, with improvements expected from 2027/28 and the full solution in place by 2028/29. We know this is a while away, but we want to let you know that we have heard your feedback and are working on improvements.
We want to hear from you. Your views are essential to help us understand what we are doing well and where we need to make changes.
I encourage you to share your thoughts by completing surveys, joining the Student Panel and standing or voting in student elections. Please continue to give feedback through your School Student Staff Liaison Committees and Students’ Association representatives. Your views do matter to us.
Lucy Evans
Associate Principal and Deputy Secretary, Students
