Academic support

All online students have the same support as on-campus students. You will have access to a wide range of student support services to contact and help you during your time as an online student.

Support from your School

Student advisers

While you're studying with us, specially trained staff, academics and fellow students work together to provide you with guidance and support when you need it. Student Advisers are your main point of contact for support with your studies, wellbeing or practical matters.

Find out more about the role of your student adviser

Programme director

Your programme director will support you with your programme of study and help you to connect with fellow students.

These staff will be able to provide you with, or direct you to, appropriate support for challenges (either personal or academic) which may occur during your studies.

Wellbeing advisers

Wellbeing Advisers can provide you with advice on wellbeing-related issues and recommend other specialist services, such as the Student Counselling Service or our Disability and Learning Support Service, who may be able to help you. 

Find out more about the Disability and Learning Support Service

Support from other services

Library services

As an online learner or student, you can access a large number of library resources and services.

Using the library from a distance may be new to some students, but we are here to help, so don't hesitate to ask if you're stuck.

Institute for Academic Development (IAD)

The Institute of Academic Development (IAD) offers you online study workshops, advice and self-paced learning resources.  These friendly, informal workshops, run by study development advisers in IAD, take place online throughout the semester to help you. You can find additional support for citations and referencing, preparing for exams, and a lot of useful advice and information on good academic practice.

Online courses offered by the IAD

Online students can access our Study Hub learning resources at any time. These resources include advice on a range of issues from time management, to academic writing.

Succeeding at masters level

The section ‘Succeeding at Master's Level’ is an excellent source of advice to help you prepare for and succeed in studying at postgraduate level, including sections on preparing for your studies and preparing for change. There is also a useful introduction to the postgraduate level study and how it differs from undergraduate level study.

Advice place

If you are experiencing an issue with your course or studies, the advice place can assist.

Advice Place, Academic Support

EdHelp support

EdHelp is the University's student enquiry service covering Library, IT, Student Finance and Student Administration.

Contact EdHelp (requires University login)

English language development

If English is not your first language, there are a range of online resources that can help to support your English language development.

If you are looking for some further English language practice before you start your studies, here are some external resources that may help support your learning.

English language education

Once you are a student, you can access independent study materials from the University.

The British Council

The British Council have a range of free online resources to help learn English including videos, mobile apps, games, stories, listening activities and grammar exercises.

BBC learning English

Offering free audio, video and text materials to learners around the world.  Many of the BBC Learning English materials are delivered as full length courses but each component of the course is standalone and can also be studied on its own. You can find out more about our current and future courses on their webpages.

This article was published on