East London Students’ Union Advice Service: User Agreement
1, Introduction
There is information and guidance about student policies and university regulations available on the UEL website and in the East London Students’ Union Advice web pages.
In addition to the information generally available, the East London Students’ Union Advice Service (Advice Service) provides free advice on academic issues to all students who are members of the East London Students’ Union.
A student agrees to become a User under this User Agreement when the Advice Service receive a completed and eligible Contact Form. The Contact Form signposts students to this User Agreement, containing our service standards and to our Privacy Statement. If, having read the User Agreement, a student no longer wishes to receive our service they can withdraw from the service – see ‘Completion of service or withdrawal of service,’ section below.
Once a Contact Form has been received, your case will be allocated to an adviser who will contact you to request further details, or provide the information you seek, and/ or arrange an appointment. We aim to respond to all Contact Forms and emails within three working days.
Appointments may be face- to- face or on Microsoft Teams. Although the availability of advisers may vary, the advice service is available 9:30-4:30 Monday – Friday.
2.Eligibility of the Advice service
We provide advice to current UEL students who automatically become members of the East London Students’ Union when they enrol. If you have withdrawn from your studies, been withdrawn, graduated, or if you have been expelled, we can offer you advice if you submit a Contact Form within 3 months of the date that you ceased to be a UEL student.
At the time of writing, we can also offer advice to students who attend the following partnership institutions:
1. Babcock/Metropolitan Police
2. Barking and Dagenham College
3. Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts
4. London College of Contemporary Arts (LCCA)
5. Malvern House
6. Maria Montessori Institute
7. OLC (Bolton)
8. University Campus of Football Business (UCFB)
9. West Ham United Foundation
10. Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust
11. Institute of Child Education and Psychology Europe (ICEP)
12. Rheinische Fachhochschule (RFH)
Students (other than the above) who study at UEL's collaborative partner institutions are not members of East London Students' Union and should seek advice within their own institutions. UEL’s partnership institutions changes from time to time and a full current list can be obtained from UEL.
3.Confidentiality
All information that students share with the Advice Service will be treated with the strictest confidentiality within the SU. An adviser may share information with another adviser within the Advice Service but will not share any personal information with a 3rd party outside the service except for the purposes outlined in ‘Authority to Act’ section below. All face-to-face interviews are conducted in a dedicated private space and our e-mails and case management files are accessed by Advice Service staff only.
The Advice Service recognises that occasions may arise where an adviser feels the need to breach confidentiality. We recognise that any breach of confidentiality may damage the reputation of our service and therefore it is considered most seriously.
Circumstances where an adviser may feel the need to breach confidentiality, in exception to this policy, include:
· Where the adviser feels there is an issue of serious current/potential self-harm or harm to others.
· There is a conflict of interest which necessitates an adviser informing one or more student(s) that they cannot provide advice services or that they can no longer act on their behalf. By its very nature, this will draw attention to the fact that they are acting for the other party and/or the other party has already sought advice.
· Where not to do so would break the law; for example, under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989, it is an offence to fail to give information which may help to prevent acts of terrorism or apprehend a terrorist.
4.Authority to Act
When, in the course of offering advice, we need to contact somebody outside of the Advice Service, we will typically confirm that this is agreeable to the student prior to doing so.
Nevertheless, by completing a Contact Form the student agrees that the adviser may, from time to time, discuss the case with senior members of East London Students’ Union staff, or UEL staff (or other authorised third parties such as, but not limited to, the OIA and other third-party organisations used by those organisations mentioned in this paragraph)in performing their tasks within this Authority to Act section. As part of this agreement the
student also understands that the Advice Service may also view UEL Direct records. These actions may be for the purposes of confirming the status of a problem, checking UEL regulations on a matter, or clarifying the point of dispute with university staff. This is not intended as a full list of scenarios, but the purpose of the contact or action is to understand the issues further with the intention of helping the student reach a satisfactory resolution where this is possible.
The student also agrees that in some situations the adviser may act on the student’s behalf. This can include but is not limited to:
· Discussing or emailing UEL members of staff (or those acting or representing UEL) on the student’s behalf so that action can be taken.
· Advocating for or presenting the student’s position in university meetings and panels.
· Submitting forms.
· Submitting evidence or other supporting information.
· Requesting information relevant to the case from UEL.
As detailed in our Privacy Statement, the Advice team also gather statistical information from time to time on those who use our service in order to continually improve and adapt our service. Any resulting reports with be fully anonymised and in line with the Privacy Statement.
5.Service Standards
We will work hard to provide a service of good quality and acknowledge that this can be best achieved when working in an environment of mutual trust with the student. We will therefore provide an Advice Service that meets the following behavioural expectations.
• Independent
The East London Students’ Union is its own charitable organisation and all advice offered from the Advice Service is independent of all external and third parties including the University of East London.
• Impartial
The Advice Service will give impartial advice to students exploring options with the student and discussing the consequences of each option without prejudicing the student to a particular viewpoint.
• Informative
The advice we give to students is informative to allow students to make their own decisions about the best way forward. The advisers will not make decisions on behalf of students but will give students the information needed to make their own decisions.
• Non-Judgemental
We will assist and advise all students (subject to conflicts of interest and anything that may prevent us from offering a fair, safe and impartial service) and consider all cases regardless of the student’s current situation and how it arose. We will not ask questions or ask for information unless we feel it is relevant to the case.
• Equality and Respect
In line with our equal opportunities policy we provide equal access to all students and do not discriminate on any grounds including, but not exclusive to disability, gender, race, age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, or marriage and civil partnership.
• Honest
Advisers will provide honest advice and guidance on academic issues and university procedures based on experience and knowledge of the regulations. Advisers cannot guarantee a successful outcome for any case they deal with and will only provide guidance and advice based on criteria and rules set out in the Regulations and policies of the University of East London. The advisers will not provide any advice on issues outside their field of competence. If an adviser cannot give advice on any issue, then they may refer the student to another source of assistance such as University Student Services.
6.Obligations of the Student
We will work hard to provide a service of good quality and acknowledge that this can be best achieved when working in an environment of mutual trust with the student. We therefore request that students using the Advice Service meet the following behavioural expectations.
• Respect
We expect all students to treat our staff with respect. Students are expected to adhere to the University’s Dignity at Work and Study Policy. Service will be withdrawn if a student exhibits verbally abusive, threatening, discriminatory or violent behaviour toward a member of Union staff or any other persons accessing the service. Service will also be withdrawn if, despite verbal or written warnings, a student continues to exhibit offensive or insulting behaviour toward a member of Union staff or any other persons accessing the service. This can include behaviour where a student is rude or unpleasant or repeatedly uses inappropriate language.
• Responsibility
Whilst our role is to provide advice and support on the student’s case, the ultimate responsibility for moving the case forward and making decisions, rests with the student. This means that the student must submit forms and take necessary action on their case within set time limits as per university policy or agreement with the adviser and ensure that advice provided is followed in a timely way. Students should not wait on the Advice Service if to do so would cause a policy deadline or submission to be missed.
• Honest
Students are expected to be open and honest about their situation to enable us to give the best advice possible. Failure to disclose all relevant information in good time may affect the outcome of the case and our ability to advise or represent the student further.
• Communication
We expect students to keep us up to date with any developments in their case. If the student hears from the University or another 3rd party on a matter that they have asked the Advice Service to advise on, we expect the student to update their adviser.
• Commitment
We naturally expect a student to be actively desiring a satisfactory outcome to any issue they bring to the Advice Service. We expect students to fulfil any course of action agreed between them and an adviser if they wish for their case to be progressed. It is acceptable for students to change their minds about how they would like to approach their matter as their situation ultimately rests with them; but failure to provide relevant documents and information that would assist in progressing the matter, can considerably delay any further action in a case.
It is important that all students arrive to their appointments in good time. Failure to attend an appointment or arrive on time will result in the loss of the appointment. We will cancel an appointment if the student does not attend within 10 minutes of the scheduled start time of the meeting. Where possible students should notify the Advice Service if they know they can’t attend or are going to be late.
7.Completion of service or withdrawal of service
The student has the right to stop using the service at any time. It is always helpful to know that this is the case so that we do not initiate any further unwelcome action or communication on the matter.
Case Closure
We routinely close our cases when the matter has been resolved and no further action is required. The case can be exceptionally reopened if the matter re-emerges.
If a new matter evolves a short time after a case has been concluded, or occurs at any future point, a student may be asked to submit a new Contact Form.
We may also consider a case closed if the last action was with the student and we haven’t had any contact with the student for 4 weeks. It is our usual practice, when no updates or contact has occurred with the student for 4 weeks, for the Advice Service to email a student explaining the case has been flagged as inactive. On receipt of the email, a student will have 2 weeks to tell us if further support is still required. If there is no response the case will be closed.
· Exceptions to being contacted prior to closing the case (after 4 weeks inactivity) would be:
o If the nature of the inquiry was a request for information which was provided by the Advice Service. If no further contact has been made, we will assume
that the student has received the information needed and that there is no further action required by either the student or adviser.
o If the case was time sensitive and the student has now been withdrawn / the appeal or complaint is now out of time / or another situation that is unlikely to be resolved to the satisfaction of the student. If we feel by reaching out to the student having already provided any assistance we can and having left the next action with the student, it would cause further distress to reconfirm that nothing further can be currently actioned by us, we will close the case.
Withdrawal of the Service by the Advice Service
In some circumstances we may feel it is necessary to withdraw a student’s access to the service. Reasons for this include:
· Where we find that there is a Conflict of Interest for the adviser or the service. In most cases a student will be provided with another adviser rather than service being withdrawn.
· Where a student activates their rights under Data Protection law to have the data removed from our system. We cannot provide a service without the requested personal data being available to the advisers.
· Where a student does not meet the Obligations of the Student as described above.
· A student attempts to involve an adviser in immoral or illegal pursuit
· A student is seeking advice on the same matter by another agency or service, such as legal counsel.
· If the level or type of service required is beyond the scope of the service. In this case we would normally refer you to a suitable alternative.
· A student has made a serious complaint against the service, and this is currently being investigated
Where an adviser believes that a restriction to or withdrawal from the service is necessary, this will be discussed with the Advice Service Manager. Any student that is withdrawn from the service will be notified in writing and directed to the Students’ Union complaints procedure.
Feedback and Complaints
We are always looking at ways to improve the Advice Service and welcome feedback from students. You can find details of our complaints procedure in the Bye Laws of our Constitution which can be accessed on our website.
This User Agreement was last updated February ‘23