Centre of Academic Success (CAS) Activities September 2020 - March 2021

The CAS Team has been busy providing online support to students since the start of the academic term. Not only are the students seeking these services themselves, but it is great to see that the lecturers are signposting and referring at-risk students to CAS so that they can get the right assistance in a timely manner. 

Faiza Umar Head of CAS has ensured that our students are supported across a range of services which is evidenced by the year on year increase in our students’ academic success.

Siobhan McNiff has been a huge support to all our students, especially the students with a declared learning disability. So far, she has offered 155 individualappointments in this term. She and Faiza have also been facilitating the daily online individual drop-in sessions attended by 178 students so far. Between the two of them, they have also delivered approximately 70 Academic Enrichment Workshops across all UG and PG programmes catering to roughly 1800 students. These workshops have ranged from a focus on developing academic skills amongst the new cohort of students to customising sessions around coursework or exams.

Suzannah Fernandes is the first point of contact for students requiring the services provided by CAS. The Under-18s pastoral care support service has also transitioned completely on line and she has so far consulted with 152 of our under-18 students. Her guidance is instrumental in helping them settle into University. Suzannah coordinates the Student Learning Assistant (SLA) programme  and this year a total of 80 SLAs have been recruited across IFP and UG Programmes. Suzannah also designed and delivered the Digital Literacy Pre-sessional workshops that were attended by approximately 600 students.

The latest addition to the CAS Team is Nora Tahir who has joined as the Student Support Counsellor. Nora has started offering counselling services to students through online appointments and will work towards the emotional well-being of our students. 

Apart from all of this, CAS has also completed the Inclusivity Framework review and has liaised with academic and administrative departments to determine action points to make our University even more inclusive. There will be a consistent evaluation of these initiatives to ensure that the University is upholding the shared values of diversity, equality and inclusion, contributing to the UN SDGs!