Your wellbeing

Student Support and Guidance Tutors

Our Student Support and Guidance Tutors (SSGTs) are dedicated to supporting you with any issues that might be impacting your studies, your wellbeing and your experience with us.

SSGTs are part of the Student Wellbeing Team but work within schools alongside academic staff – information is only shared with schools if you have given them permission to do so.

 You can talk through anything affecting your ability to achieve with your SSGT, including:

• health, wellbeing and self-care
• anxiety and stress-related issues
• Additional Considerations applications and processes
• motivation, procrastination and time-management
• isolation, loneliness and homesickness
• accommodation issues
• difficulties with your course - guidance on intermission, transfers and withdrawal
• discrimination, bullying and harassment - reporting and support.

SSGTs will listen to your concerns, find out what is truly going on and how things are affecting you. They will talk through your options and may direct you to specialist services across the university, as well as the support available locally.

Each academic school has at least one SSGT. You will usually get to meet your SSGT in the first few weeks of starting university.

Personal Academic Tutors

To help you make the most out of your time at the University of Brighton, you will be assigned a Personal Academic Tutor (PAT) at the beginning of your degree to help you develop skills to achieve your goals, such as guiding you through assessment feedback from all of your modules.

Your PAT will be one of the academic staff within your schools and will be your support for all academic aspects of your degree which isn’t related to the content of any individual modules.

PATs work closely with your Student Support and Guidance Tutor (SSGT), who will provide support on a range of issues such as:

• homesickness and loneliness
• problems with accommodation
• the transition to Higher Education
• stress-related issues
• mitigating circumstances.

PATs are also able to support you with planning for your future, and can refer you to a Career Development Adviser for your school if you would like to talk through your ideas or get support with developing your skills and your career.

Discrimination, harassment and violence

The University of Brighton is committed to upholding a safe, inclusive and respectful environment for everyone in our community, and we're all collectively responsible for this aim. We believe that any form of harassment, abuse, sexual misconduct or discrimination is #NeverOK. For more information, see #NeverOK.

If you were to experience any form of harassment, discrimination, violence or abuse, please know that you would not need to suffer in silence. You can disclose an incident to us, either with your name or anonymously. If you identify yourself, our Disclosure Response Team can then help you get the support you need. You can also disclose an incident that you have witnessed.

Contacting the Disclosure Response Team does not start a formal report or complaint to the university authorities. We will take you through your options so that you can make an informed decision.

Physical health

When you arrive at university, it's vital to register with your local health services so you can get help if problems arise.

If you are experiencing health issues or would like to do more to stay healthy, you can get more information on My Brighton, or reach out to us for advice and support. 

We also encourage all of our students to get both doses of the MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) vaccine before they start at university. The MMR vaccine is available for free to anyone who has not received both doses as a child. If you haven’t had both doses, you should arrange a free catch up vaccination as soon as possible, ideally before coming to university.

Mental health

Alongside counselling, we provide a range of support services that may be helpful to you. To enable us to understand your situation, the first steps are to register with our wellbeing service and book your assessment appointment.

At the appointment you may be referred to a counsellor for support, the Disability and Learning Support team, your Student Support and Guidance Tutor, or in the first instance, to our self-help resources. We may also consider, with you, a referral to a specialist local or national service if appropriate.

Disability and learning support

A disability is defined as any long-term condition (that lasts or is expected to last for more than 12 months) that has a significant adverse effect on your ability to study.

It can include conditions such as:

• Specific learning differences (such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia)
• Mental health conditions
• Neurodivergence (such as autism, ADHD)
• Physical disabilities (including mobility and sensory impairments)
• Long term health conditions (such as epilepsy, cancer, HIV, etc.)
• Any combination of the above.

The Disability and Learning Support team support students with a wide range of disabilities to help them to succeed on their course.

More information about this support is available on our new students with disabilities page.

Expert and tailored support

If you need support with specific issues, or more focussed support than your SSGT can provide, we have a range of tailored support options available to help you feel your best at university.