ENSA Advice Blog

Closing out the 2025/26 Academic Year

Wed, 20 May 2026 15:24:25 +0100

As the 2025/26 year draws to a close, I thought I’d share a few statistics from the ENSA Advice Service over the past academic year:

We’ve assisted with 784 Advice Enquiries
44% of those have related to Welfare Cases; 56% have been Academic Cases
We have supported a pretty even split of Undergraduate students (51%) and Postgraduate students (49%)
And a similarly even split of Home students (47%) and International students (50%), with the remaining 3% relating to students from elsewhere in the UK.
The Top 3 reasons students contacted the Advice Team were:
1. Academic Misconduct
2. General Course Queries
3. Financial Hardship

What have we been up to?

When we last blogged (in April) we’d been busy. That hasn’t changed! Alongside supporting students day-to-day, we’ve been working on a range of projects behind the scenes to help improve the service we provide:

ENSA Advice Website

One of our main focuses recently has been reviewing and updating content across the ENSA Advice website. We know students rely on our online information to help navigate University Life, so we’ve been looking at ways to make our guidance clearer and easier to find.

Case Management System Migration

As Hannah mentioned in March’s blog, we’re also in the process of moving to a new case management system, and we’re excited to get this up and running over the summer. There’s a lot of work happening behind the scenes to prepare for the transition, and we’re looking forward to the benefits it will bring.

Training

As part of our ongoing professional development, members of the team recently attended a workshop on Cults and New Religious Movements. This session was run by an organisation called Inform and provided some valuable insight into recognising and supporting students who may be affected by harmful groups or coercive behaviours.

Strategic Planning

Earlier this month, a few of us from the wider ENSA team also attended a Strategic Planning session with the University Principal Sue Rigby, which gave us a chance to contribute to discussions about ENU’s future direction.

Team Appraisals & Work Plans

Internally, we’ve been carrying out team appraisals, and developing our individual work plans, which will feed into the wider ENSA Student Community Development Plan. It’s been useful to reflect on our achievements from the past year, and to identify goals and priorities for the year ahead.

A final few highlights from across ENSA this month:

Diane, together with Evans (our Student President for Societies & Community) presented to a group of International Recruitment Agents on the support that ENSA can offer.
Moray & Hannah supported our colleagues in ENSA Sports & Societies by presenting at the Committee training sessions
We also helped with shortlisting nominations for ENSA’s Excellence Awards.

And last, but not least!!

A reminder that the ENSA Advice Team remains open throughout the summer. Whether you need support with exam results, housing, money, or anything else – we’re here for you. You can make an appointment with us here: Make an Appointment with an Adviser

Good luck to anyone waiting for exam results, and we hope that everyone has a great summer break.

ENSA Advice - Exam and Assessments

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 11:00:53 +0100

Exam and assessments for Trimester 2 are upcoming, here is our short guide on how to approach them:

1: Getting prepared

Find out when are your exams are from the Exam timetable

For assessments see your specific courses Moodle pages

How to help tackle them:

Engage with academic materials from Moodle - make sure you read the assessment or exam brief
If you still have questions you can contact your Module leader
If you need additional academic support speak to the study skills team

2: Are you ready?

Are you in the right frame of mind to be sitting these assessments? Read the Fit to Sit and extenuating circumstances policy

Ensure you are following the Artificial intelligence tools guidance and upholding Academic integrity

Do you need additional provisions made due to a health condition, learning difficulty or disability? Contact the Inclusion team

3. Getting through them!

Make sure you are timetabling for sleep, free time and doing things to unwind. This will help you to succeed

If you need Wellbeing Support, contact the team

If you would like anonymous, online support, you can contact Togetherall

Throughout this whole process you can contact ENSA’s Student Advisers for free, independent, confidential and impartial advice by booking an appointment here: ENSA ADVICE. We will post more advice on what to do about results once the exam period ends. Good luck!

ENSA Advice - March Blog

Wed, 22 Apr 2026 14:45:59 +0100

March Update from the ENSA Advice Team

March has been a key month for the advice team at ENSA. Following the busy February Trimester 1 Results and Appeals Deadlines, and ongoing academic misconduct cases, the team has dealwith an increase in student's seeking support for welfare issues including financial hardship. The team have also been working on ongoing project work to increase our support, including an upcoming Academic Integrity and Artificial Intelligence campaign and a review of our website content.

We also attended a meeting with the Fit to Sit Officers from each school in order to discuss key issues impacting students and the best ways to work together to support students who's studies are impacted by extenuating circumstances.

The team are also in the process of moving to a more effective record management system which will hopefully enable us to support students in a more efficient way and provide better insight into how we are currently helping students in order to improve our service.

ENSA Collaboration

The team have also continued our contribution to wider ENSA projects, events and planning. As part of this, we all attended a team away day at the start of March focussed on Student Journey and our the Student Community Development Plan. We also all fed into a review and discussion regarding ENSA's Vision, Mission and Values.

Members of the team also supported events for Student Elections, and talked about ENSA Advice's offer at introductory talks for staff and students.

Couch to 5K

If you are a student or staff member who is interested in beginning or returning to running, why not register your interest for our new 9-week "Couch to 5K" group? Currently in week 3, the group meets on Wednesdays at 4pm in Harrison Park (West)- register to attend here: Couch to 5k

This is a positive and inclusive group, designed for anyone who can currently walk comfortably for 30 minutes but would not yet feel able to run 5K. Each week there will be one coach led session, along with two additional runs that participants can complete independently (or with a friend!).

Training and Development

Several advisers attended internal Safeguarding Training, a reminder of the university and ENSA's responsibilities to ensure the safety of students and also vulnerable children and adults in our wider community. If you ever have concerns about the safety of yourself, a student or a vulnerable person you can contact the Wellbeing Support and Inclusion, use the Report & Support service or let an ENSA adviser know.

Hannah also attended a webinar from Student Minds discussing Artificial Intelligence and student wellbeing. Marianne attended the AdviceUK Scotland Member Forum and Diane attended the Edinburgh Food Project - Referral Forum. Attendance at these kinds of events enables us to keep on top of issues impacting the wider student and Edinburgh communities, in order to best support our understanding and inform our advice.

AI use within assessments campaign

ENSA advice are currently planning 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

Need Advice or Reassurance?

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: ENSA ADVICE | Scheduling and Booking Website

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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