Testimonial #12

“I’m going to keep this short but the crux of the matter is that the student advisors helped me immensely last year and I don’t understand how their position isn’t considered important enough by the university management! Some of the testimonials on this blog truly demonstrate the worth of student advisors in incredibly unpleasant situations- but they are brilliant in more simple or ‘ordinary’ matters, like illness, and so valuable to numerous students.
I’ve seen a student advisor a couple of times during my time at Sussex and they have been an invaluable source of support, and information. In my first year I was really ill and unable to complete my summer term coursework or sit my scheduled exams, or even do any reading. When you’re ill, you don’t need to deal with the added stress of worrying about passing your course. The advisor was brilliant, talking me through the mitigating evidence procedure and the forms, and helping me sort out alternative arrangements with student support, and providing evidence for MEC. It really helped to take the stress out of the situation.
I actually attended a different university for half a term but I had to leave due to illness. The system there was totally different. If you were absent, you were hounded by these particularly scary office staff and made to feel like you were in the wrong- even if you were ill! I read on one of the testimonials below that the system at Sussex has student advisors simply emailing and asking if you were ok, which is much better. If they’d had it at my previous university it would have certainly made things a bit easier for me.“