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Final year

BA (Hons) Sociology

Whether you are struggling with your work load, references for your assignments, or need a refresher on how to use the Library database, there are several support services you can go to at any stage in your university career.

Library Services:

Woman in the library looking at books on the shelf about to pull one from the shelf

Weston Library, Bournemouth Gateway Building

In my experience at university I have used the library services several times throughout my three years, the library staff are great to go to, especially in your first year of university when assignments and exams can feel overwhelming. They are available to answer questions about how to use the library, how to find good academic articles and books, and how to reference correctly in your assignments, and are a great resource to go to.

The library staff often collaborate with lecturers to give lecturers to help students, but if you need a refresher you can pop in or book a one-to-one meeting with one of the Academic Liaison Librarians.

Although the team is perfect to go to in the first year to get introduced to how the library works, in my experience they have been great to go to as a third year doing a dissertation, as I had meetings with one of the library staff Caspian who was very helpful with my search for academic articles for my dissertation. It is a great source of help for students no matter what year it is never too late to get some extra support, don’t worry about reaching out the staff are lovely!

Also on Brightspace, there are some great resources in the study skills area for presentations, references, and how to study effectively. This is where you can book workshops or meetings with the library staff for help with maths and statistics, academic writing support, English language support, and more! This is available for everyone and can be a great help in the long term, not only with university work but into the workplace.

Additional Learning Support:

As well as the library team, there is the Additional Learning support team that is here to support students who are registered with a disability such as sensory/physical disabilities, specific learning differences, medical conditions, mental health difficulties, and/or temporary injuries. This is available for both undergraduate and postgraduate students and is available for students who have registered with the university through MyHub.

There are over 2000 students registered with the ALS team and are a great resource for support during university, in my experience I have known many of my friends who have benefited from registering with the ALS service such as helping them screen for different learning differences, ordering DSA equipment such as a laptop and offering guidance. Even if you want to just have a chat the team is available to support you.

Poole Gateway Building

Peer-Assisted Learning:

Another great resource when entering university is the Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme which is a support system between students on the same course, PAL leaders from the year above students are trained to help students adjust to university life, prepare for assessments and exams and understand course content better. This is a great port of call for all students to get support from fellow students, in my experience, this was very helpful when I was settling into University life.

As I have detailed above there are many points of access for support for all students at Bournemouth University, making sure everyone can succeed and access any form of support they need, just reach out!

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