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Supporting Your Transition to QMU

Direct Entrant Induction

All our new Direct Entrants (students entering year 2, 3 or 4 of an undergraduate degree) start at QMU with a dedicated induction programme. The programme is designed as a response to feedback from Direct Entrants collected over a number of years and is an invaluable opportunity to get to know the University, meet your lecturers and fellow students, access your timetable, get your student card and learn about the University IT system.

Induction is interactive and participatory and will answer some of your key questions about university, giving you the best possible start to your degree study at QMU. During the week you will have the opportunity to brush up on your presentation skills, do a mini research activity and submit an essay at the end of the week which you will receive feedback on from one of your tutors giving you an early and invaluable insight into degree level study.

During Direct Entrant Induction you will:

• Meet key members of staff
• Meet your fellow Direct Entrants
• Find out from current Direct Entrants what QMU is really like
• Find your way around campus
• Find out about your timetable
• Get to use the library and QMU's electronic resources and develop your academic skills while learning how to write a piece of university level work

To find out more about Direct Entrant Week please contact oce@qmu.ac.uk

QMAdvance

This is an optional course, which helps new students to ease their way into life and study just before the first semester (the first block of study up to Christmas) officially commences. QMAdvance has been designed to give participants the opportunity to meet and spend time getting to know other new students who have also come to QM via an access course, another course at a college or straight from employment. The course aims to ensure that participants feel confident in their abilities while giving early access to a range of key services and staff. This course is run by our Transition & Pre-entry Guidance Adviser and our Effective Learning Adviser who liaise with other departments to ensure that the programme offers an informative and confidence-building introduction to QMU.

The course takes place over 3 days, just before the start of semester each year. We send out information to new eligible students over the summer but if you are interested and think that QMAdvance could help you to settle into QMU, then please contact our Transition & Pre-entry Guidance Adviser at any stage.

QMConnect - Student Mentoring Project

We also run a mentoring project, QMConnect, that offers new students (including direct entrants to Level 2 or 3), the opportunity to be matched with a trained student mentor. Mentors are usually students who are studying the same or a similar course to you but who are at least a year ahead of you (often they took part themselves as mentees). Mentees and mentors usually meet up for informal support on a weekly basis for about an hour. However, the scheme is very flexible and mentees and mentors decide between themselves what they want to get out of it and how often to meet up. Every partnership is different. Some will mainly concentrate on discussing issues to do with learning and study skills while others may focus on practical things like making best use of IT/library resources, or tips for fitting study into your life.

While we will do our best to match any interested student, places are limited so it's best to get in touch with our Transition & Guidance Adviser as early as possible.

In addition Student Services at QMU offers a range of support and guidance for students including Careers and Employment Service, Counselling Service, Disability Service, Medical Service, Student Finance Advice.