student support

As the winter university break approaches, so does the inevitable narrative of students ‘returning home for Christmas’ – but what does that mean for those who remain in accommodation over the holiday? We explore some of the reasons why students stay in their accommodation over the festive season, best practice for inclusive operations and communications, and how Unite Students is supporting students over this period.

Unite Students, the UK’s leading owner, manager and developer of student accommodation, won Operator of the Year award at this year’s Property Week’s 2022 Student Accommodation Awards.

Student mental health support is a shared challenge across the Higher Education sector, and a holistic, collaborative approach is fundamental to addressing it. Unite Students’ new student support framework, ‘Support to Stay’, aims to join up our student support services with those of our university partners.

In January, Becca Hayhurst joined the organisation as our new Head of Student Support. We caught up with Becca to find out how she’s finding her role, what she’s been up to since joining, and details of our new student support strategy.

Kerry Watson, Student Support Manager, shares some insight into loneliness and how we’re aiming to tackle it over January and February.

We’ve launched a pilot of ‘Look after your mate’ workshops for students, to guide them on what to do if a friend is struggling. Jenny Dalzell, Student Support Manager, shares more about this initiative, including what it involves, why we’re doing it, and how we’re doing it.

Unite Students launched its student ambassador scheme in 2016. This year, we’ve overhauled and rebranded it as the resident ambassador scheme; Intrapreneur Pin Yiong shares what the new-look initiative looks like.

In our feature series A Day in the Life Of…, we introduce some of our people on the front lines at Unite Students, working to make students’ accommodation experience the best it can be. This time, our interviewee is Jenny Dalzell, the Student Support Manager for Sheffield, Leeds and Birmingham, who has been with us for two and a half years.