Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing Policy

We want to support you to participate fully in your studies, making the most of everything university life has to offer.

Our Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing Policy (PDF , 97kb) sets out how we support you during your time at university to achieve your full academic potential.

How does our policy support you?

We aim to make sure you benefit from your studies. If you're struggling, we want you to receive support at the earliest possible opportunity.

Supporting your engagement with your studies

Our policy sets out how we support your engagement with your studies by:

  • Giving you information before you start, and during your induction, to make sure you're familiar with your course requirements, and how to access facilities, services and support
  • Providing teaching and learning experiences, including supervision of postgraduate researchers
  • Offering course-related learning resources and support materials within the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
  • Providing a range of academic and professional support services

Please note that access to University IT systems, including Gmail, e:Vision and Blackboard, may be limited if you are in a country that is subject to sanctions from the UK or other jurisdictions, such as the USA and EU.

Check-In

We ask students to Check-In to register their engagement with on-campus timetabled teaching sessions. This enables us to quickly identify where students stop engaging and support you with any issues you may be having - whether academic or wellbeing related. This gives you the best chance to achieve your full academic potential. If it looks like you're not engaging with your studies, we will reach out to you with guidance and support. 

Our Check-In policy applies to undergraduate and postgraduate students, but does not apply to Hull York Medical School students, students on York Online programmes, CPD and Lifelong Learning, or Validated Provision (CITY College), as separate arrangements are in place.

Whilst Check-In is used to understand engagement with in-person teaching sessions, we strongly encourage engagement with online sessions too, where this forms part of your programme. In the future, we will be looking to use Check-In for online sessions too.

The purpose of Check-In is to support student welfare and wellbeing. Exceptional circumstances and Student Support Plans are always taken into account when looking at engagement. We understand that everyone's circumstances are different.

Difficulties with engagement

We're committed to supporting all students and we understand that there can be valid reasons for not engaging with your taught sessions - whether that's because of difficulties commuting, caring responsibilities, ongoing illness or disability. If your engagement drops, we will contact you to offer more information on where you can access support, depending on your individual circumstances. You can also contact the Student Hub - they're a first point of contact at any time to discuss your circumstances.

Our Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing Procedure outlines what we do if we are concerned that you may need extra support.

Student Academic Engagement and Wellbeing Procedure

Support through supervision

The University is a supportive organisation and actively promotes contact between staff and students. Supervisors play a key role in helping you to make the most of your studies and opportunities for personal development.

To find out more about the support you can expect through supervision, read our policy on Taught Student Supervision.