ENSA Advice Blog

ENSA Advice - February Blog

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 14:37:58 Z

February Update from the ENSA Advice Team

February has been a busy month for the ENSA Advice team with Results Day taking place on 9 February and the first full month of study since November for students. As always, this can be a stressful time for students as they process their outcomes and consider their next steps.

Trimester 1 Results and Appeals Deadlines

Following the release of results, students had five working days (seven days in total) to submit any academic appeals. This created a busy period for the team and we worked closely with students to talk through their options, explain the grounds for appeal and support them in preparing and submitting their applications. We know how overwhelming this process can feel, particularly when timeframes are tight, so we aimed to provide clear, calm guidance at every stage.

Results Stalls

For the first time, we ran dedicated Results Day stalls on campus. These were designed to give students an immediate, informal opportunity to speak with us, ask questions and understand what support is available. Hopefully this made the process feel more accessible and helped increase the visibility of the Advice team. It was encouraging to have conversations with students who may not otherwise have reached out and to remind people that independent, confidential advice is always available. We will be reflecting on this initiative and looking at how we can build on it in future results periods.

Accommodation Fair at Bainfield

This month we also attended the accommodation fair at Bainfield, where we had the opportunity to meet students in their accommodation setting and talk about the advice available through ENSA. It was a great chance to answer questions, listen to concerns and make sure students know how to access advice if they need it. Being visible in different spaces across the university community is something we are keen to continue.

Academic Integrity

We are continuing to support a number of students who submitted assessments in December and were later flagged for academic integrity concerns, primarily relating to the use of Artificial Intelligence. In many cases, these processes are still ongoing and we recognise the uncertainty and stress this can cause. The Advice team has been working closely with affected students to explain procedures, attend meetings and ensure they understand the universities policies throughout the process and that they are adhered to.

AI use within assessments campaign

In response to this, we will be running a campaign focused on AI use within assessments. The aim is to inform students, provide information about university guidelines, reduce confusion and help students feel confident about how to use tools appropriately and ethically in their studies, ultimately reducing the number of academic misconduct cases. Our student survey is currently open and you can complete it here: ENSA Academic Integrity & Artificial Intelligence (AI) Survey

Campus rotations

The ENSA advisers work on all three campuses and complete three months at each before rotating around. February was the final month of this rotation and as of next month Moray and Hannah will be based at Merchiston, Diane at Sighthill and Marianne at Craiglockhart.

Ongoing Support

Alongside these key areas of work, we have continued supporting students with a wide range of academic and welfare queries. Whether it is appeals, academic conduct concerns, funding issues or personal circumstances affecting your studies, we are here to offer confidential and non judgemental advice.

If you would like to speak with an adviser, you can book an appointment using the link below: ENSA ADVICE | Scheduling and Booking Website

Happy New Year from ENSA Advice!

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 11:36:23 Z

Happy new year from everyone in the ENSA Advice Team! We hope you had a restful break and are feeling ready for the year ahead. In this blog post, I want to reflect on what was a busy and productive December for the team, as well as share what’s coming up.

A Busy End to 2025

December may have been a shorter month (with the festive break) but the Advice Service remained very busy - in total, we conducted 73 student appointments in the month of December.

Also behind the scenes in December:

Hannah has been continuing work on the Student Mental Health Agreement, which is our collaboration with the University to ensure that student wellbeing remains a priority.
Moray helped to run a support lunch for International Students at the Craiglockhart Campus.
Marianne attended the School of Applied Science all-staff meeting, and presented on our ENSA Advice service, keeping us connected with the University.
Moray has been attending Advice UK training – with a focus on Reflective Practice, and Building Resilience in Advice Work
Hannah has been involved with our ENSA “Moving to Inclusion” working group
The Team worked together with colleagues in the Chaplaincy and the Counselling & Wellbeing team to create a list of Things to Do and Places to Turn over the Christmas break – this was to support any of our students staying in Edinburgh who may have felt worried about loneliness or being away from family during this time.
Marianne met with all the Fit to Sit officers from each school to highlight any areas of concern and to discuss how we can best work together.

We rounded off the year with our Advice Team Christmas lunch in the Merchiston Triangle Restaurant, which involved some competitive cracker-pulling (see photo)! We also joined colleagues at the ENSA Christmas lunch held at Copper Blossom - a lovely chance to step away from our desks and connect with the wider team.

Academic Integrity - a Reminder

The Advice Service has recently been supporting a large volume of students facing academic misconduct allegations. We want to take this opportunity to remind students that they must adhere to the University’s Academic Integrity Regulations. In particular - purchasing essays, paying someone to complete work on your behalf, or using so-called “essay mills” is a serious breach of academic regulations. This is considered cheating, and the consequences can be severe.

If you are struggling with an assignment, please reach out for support early.

Looking Ahead

As students return from the Winter Break next week, our aim is to be as visible and accessible on campus as possible. You’ll find us at the Welcome (Back) Fair, on Tuesday 20 January, where we will have a stall. We will also be running ENSA support stalls on all three campuses throughout the whole of Welcome Back Week. We look forward to chatting to new and returning students and finding out how we can support you.

In January, we are excited to be involved in the following:

presenting at the International College Induction (Marianne)
attending Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (Moray & Hannah)
running a board game café for nursing students (Hannah)
taking part in See Me’s Empower Change training (whole team)
presenting at the School of Health & Social Care all-staff meeting (Marianne)

Here’s to a positive and supportive start to the new year – we’re looking forward to working with you in January and beyond.

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ENSA Advice - November Blog

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:41:20 Z

November Update from the ENSA Advice Team

November has been another busy month for ENSA Advice, with term well underway and lots of projects and staff training aiming to continue to develop our service, alongside our main focus of providing advice direct to students. Some of the key issues impacting students this month have included settling in to university, financial difficulties, academic misconduct and issues with housing. We are also aware of students beginning assessments and needing to use the Fit to Sit processes to make the University aware of any personal or health issues impacting their exams and assessments, within the crucial time window around their assessments.

The team are also looking ahead to the end of the calendar year and welcoming another new cohort of students in January. This includes working towards new online content aimed at helping new students get settled in to both Edinburgh and the university. We will also be in attendance at the Welcome (Back) Fair at Sighthill in January- stop by and say hello!

Training and Development

Our newest advisers Hannah and Moray attended Scottish Mental Health First Aid (SMHFA) Training, both completing the qualification and learning more about providing initial support and signposting to anyone experiencing concerns about their Mental Health.

The whole team have also attended training designed to qualify more members of the team to make referrals to the food bank, enabling students experiencing hardship to access additional support when they need it most.

Hannah also attended training delivered by the National Autistic Society designed to increased understanding of autism and how best to support students. Moray and Diane fed back to the team on a session designed to inform about coercive control. Marianne attended training by Y-Gam, to help prevent gaming and gambling harms.

Events and Key Dates

November has kicked off with the first support sessions of this academic year, beginning with the Boardgame Café for Commuting students at Merchiston on the 12th November. In this session we provided tea, coffee and the chance to play some boardgames for students who commute to university, so that they can find out more about our Advice service and let us know what areas they feel need increased support for students like them. Some of the feedback we gathered at the event and through an online survey was then passed onto the wider ENSA team to explore how we can continue to support students. If you have any suggestions for how ENSA can improve your experience as a commuting student, let us know at ensa@napier.ac.uk

Keep an eye out for the International Students' Festive Support Lunch at Craiglockhart, 12-2pm on the 3rd December 2025!

The team also got stuck in supporting ENSA events for the whole community, including the tree lighting festivals across campuses. We will also get to share in our team Christmas meal with the rest of ENSA on the 17th December, providing a much appreciated opportunity to get ENSA staff from all campuses together in one place to celebrate everyone's hard work throughout the year.

ENSA Advice Staff Campus Rotation

At the start of December, the advisers begun their next rotation across campuses. This means that from the start of the December the advisers at each campus will be

Merchiston - Marianne and Diane
Sighthill - Hannah
Craiglockhart - Moray

These three-month rotations enable the staff to share their expertise with a different group of students in-person and also varies the days on which staff are available for in-person appointments at each site. You can continue to book direct with all advisers for MS Teams and Telephone appointments.

Support over the Winter Break

Edinburgh Napier Student's Association will be closed for the Winter Break from Tuesday 23rd December to Sunday 4th January. During this time, staff will not be available for support during usual working hours.

Edinburgh Napier University will be closed: 24 December 2025 – 4 January 2026, with some services and campus opening hours changing from the 15th December onwards.

If you experience a crisis or emergency over this period some alternate sources of support, including wellbeing support, are available here: Emergency & out of hours wellbeing support including Togetherall.

There are also some great independent sources of advice and information on key issues including:

Housing - Home - Shelter Scotland
International Student Support & Immigration - Charity Supporting International Students in the UK | UKCISA
Financial hardship and benefits - Tackling Financial Insecurity Together | Turn2us
Edinburgh based support - iThrive | Find support
Citizen's Advice Scotland - Get advice | Citizens Advice Scotland

If you are expecting to be on your own over the break, perhaps staying in a flat after your housemates have gone home for the break, and needing to be around to work and study on your own, here are some events that can help keep you busy and engaged round the festive period:

If you're feeling low around this time of year, or worried about the break in studies why not reach out to the Wellbeing Support and Inclusion before the university closure period? Or book in with ENSA Advice to talk about what we can do to help.

Need Advice or Reassurance?

I hope that you have a wonderful break and festive period, we’ll be back next month with the first updates from the ENSA Advice team in 2026. In the meantime, remember that we’re here to offer confidential, non-judgmental advice and reassurance on anything related to your welfare, wellbeing, or studies.

If you’d like to speak with an adviser, just click below to book in:

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ENSA Advice - October Blog

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 16:08:32 Z

October Update from the ENSA Advice Team

October has flown by for the ENSA Advice team. With a relatively new group in place and a busy September behind us, this month has been a great opportunity for us to settle in. We’ve continued to support students with a wide range of queries, including funding, student loans, course changes and other academic or welfare concerns. As things have started to calm down, the team has been able to spend more time collaborating with university services to strengthen the support available for students.

Training and Development

Moray took part in an Advice UK training course focused on providing high-quality support for students. The team also met with C-Card to ensure we are working together effectively to meet student needs. The C-Card scheme allows people to access free condoms and sexual health resources and we’re keen to make sure students know about this service.

Marianne also attended the Fearless Edinburgh event, a collaboration between Police Scotland, NHS Lothian and Edinburgh-based universities and colleges. The partnership is dedicated to raising awareness of sexual violence and misconduct and promoting cultural change across the city. You can learn more about Fearless Edinburgh or access support here.

Events and Key Dates

October has been a busy and rewarding month on campus. We were out and about for World Mental Health Day, hosting stalls on 9 October to raise awareness and remind students that support is always available. These events gave us the chance to meet students face to face, share information about wellbeing and encourage open conversations around mental health.

The month also included Trimester 3 results day, which kept the team busy supporting students with academic appeals and progression questions. We worked closely with university departments to help students understand outcomes and plan their next steps.

Finally, October saw many students graduate and we’d like to extend our warmest congratulations and best wishes for the future!

Behind the Scenes

We’ve been exploring how Artificial Intelligence might be used to improve how we support students. This is about enhancing our work, not replacing the personal, tailored support that students receive from our team.

Need Advice or Reassurance?

That’s all from us for now, we’ll be back next month with more updates from the ENSA Advice team. In the meantime, remember that we’re here to offer confidential, non-judgmental advice and reassurance on anything related to your welfare, wellbeing, or studies.

If you’d like to speak with an adviser, just click below to book in:

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Welcome to a new Academic Year

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 14:18:44 +0100

During this upcoming academic year, we plan to share a little bit of what goes on "behind the scenes" with ENSA Advice - from the kinds of issues that students are bringing to us, to any interesting projects, events and training we've been getting involved with.

New Advisers: First of all, we are really pleased to have welcomed two new advisers to our team over the summer: Hannah and Moray. They both bring fantastic experience and energy, and are setting in really well. Hannah and Moray join Marianne and Diane to make up a team of four advisers. We all look forward to meeting you around campus and in advice sessions.

Welcome Week: Welcome Week was a busy one for us! We took part in lots of planned ENSA events, including key collections, speed-friending, the Welcome Fair and the famous Napier pub crawl. We really enjoy these opportunities to connect with new and returning students at the start of the year, and to let people know about the support we offer.

What we've been advising on: The start of a new term always brings a wide mix of queries, and we will always do our very best to support our students with any issues they may have. These are the main themes we've been seeing over the past few weeks - we know these areas can feel stressful, and we are here to help:

queries on course progression and moving to the next stage of study
academic appeals relating to the summer resit results
financial hardship, which is an ongoing concern for a great number of our students

Training & Development: As a team we are always learning. We want to make sure we continue providing the best support possible. We've recently taken part in some training on Gambling Awareness - exploring how gambling can affect students, and learning what support is available. Marianne has also attended a webinar to learn about how generative AI could potentially be used to help us boost our productivity, and enable us to support more students. And going forward, Hannah and Moray have both signed up for some Scottish Mental Health First Aid Training.

That's it for now. We'll be back soon with more news and insights from the ENSA Advice Team. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out to us for advice and reassurance on anything relating to your studies.

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