{"id":19,"date":"2026-06-24T14:56:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T13:56:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-ecosystem-sciences\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T10:07:18","slug":"student-support","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/study\/student-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Support"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our students have access to a lot of support from a variety of sources including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Support from your Tutor<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Student Support Team<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Student Buddies Programme<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Module prep-sites<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Open University Student\u2019s Association (OUSA)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Computing Helpdesk<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Support from your Tutor<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For academic queries, the first person students should talk to is &nbsp;your module tutor (also known as an Associate Lecturer). If you\u2019re unsure whether it is best to talk to your tutor or the Student Support Team (SST) about other queries, try your tutor first. Module tutors can refer students on to other teams in the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Student Support Team<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Student Support Team for EEES is based in Manchester and in each of the nation offices. It consists of a team of advisors who offer help and advice to students for the whole of their student journey, from enquiring about a qualification to choosing a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students can access the Student Support Team from their student homepage, by email, phone, or web chat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Student Buddies<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/university.open.ac.uk\/stem\/environment-earth-ecosystem-sciences\/sites\/www.open.ac.uk.stem.environment-earth-ecosystem-sciences\/files\/images\/Student%20support%20word%20cloud.jpg\" alt=\"Cloud of different words relating to student support and studying\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Student Buddies Programme is about OU students supporting OU students. Peer mentoring takes place on the module website via a forum. Students who have previously studied a module can volunteer to work on the forum the following year or two to help provide non-academic support to students following in their footsteps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you want to know about the Student Buddies then contact&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/stem.open.ac.uk\/people\/jr2974\">Julie Robson<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Module Prep-sites<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prep-sites are places where students can talk to a tutor about the module, meet other students and student buddies, carry out quizzes to make sure they are ready to study the module, and use links and resources to develop their skills so they get off to a flying start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We have developed a set of preparation websites for our undergraduate modules that are open for a couple of months before module start to help support students in their preparation for study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Open University Student\u2019s Association (OUSA)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The OU Students Association have made a series of videos giving useful advice, including overcoming nerves at the start of a module, coping with different types of assessment, and managing your studies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/videoseries?list=PLdBdFq1FliSIira9ByT2-QjKMBhu9FrbK&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https%3A%2F%2Funiversity.open.ac.uk<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/university.open.ac.uk\/stem\/environment-earth-ecosystem-sciences\/study\/student-support#\">Show transcript<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Computing Helpdesk<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students who are having problems with computing aspects of study materials can contact the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/learn1.open.ac.uk\/course\/view.php?id=100132&amp;cmid=12699\">Computing Helpdesk<\/a>&nbsp;for advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Helpdesk can help with: access to module websites; installing and running module software; usernames, passwords and access to StudentHome; problems submitting and collecting online TMAs; and missing or late study materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/university.open.ac.uk\/stem\/environment-earth-ecosystem-sciences\/sites\/www.open.ac.uk.stem.environment-earth-ecosystem-sciences\/files\/images\/Julie_Robson_LST.jpg\" alt=\"Julie Robson, Lead Staff tutor\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/stem.open.ac.uk\/people\/jr2974\">Julie Robson<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lead Staff tutor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our students have access to a lot of support from a variety of sources including: Support from your Tutor For academic queries, the first person students should talk to is &nbsp;your module tutor (also known as an Associate Lecturer). If you\u2019re unsure whether it is best to talk to your tutor or the Student Support [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"parent":13,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_unity_review_frequency":"","_unity_review_next_due":0,"_unity_review_reset_requested":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions\/163"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/schools.stem.open.ac.uk\/environment-earth-and-ecosystem-sciences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}