How am I supported throughout my Sociology degree?

by Emma Swindlehurst

Starting university and a degree is often very daunting and overwhelming. You are in a new place, with new people, learning new skills and information. However, the Sociology Department at Lancaster University helps you with all of this. Throughout your Sociology degree you will be introduced to lots of welcoming people, you will be supported both academically and personally and you will have an abundance of resources and help available to you.

At the start of the academic year every student is allocated an academic advisor. This advisor will be a member of the Sociology department and their role is to support you throughout your degree. You meet with them once a term to discuss your academic progress, but also to discuss anything you want to talk about. Whether you are struggling with the workload, or are missing home, your academic advisor is there to support you through anything you may be struggling with. You can contact your academic advisor anytime you need, and you are not limited to talking with them once a term.

Throughout my university experience I have really appreciated having a great academic advisor. Often in our meetings we just had a general chat, and it was just nice to talk to someone that could understand how I was feeling. The meetings gave me the opportunity to release all the stress or pressure that I may have been feeling and know that I was supported and was not alone.

As well as the support from your academic advisor, the whole Sociology Department is very welcoming and supportive. I often email members of the department that are specialised in a certain topic that I have an essay on, and they are always willing to help me and often send me useful resources to use. Every member of the Sociology department wants to help you succeed and so are continually there to offer academic advice and support.

The Experiencing Sociology programme consists of different events run by the Sociology Department that are available for Sociology students to attend. The events consist of quizzes, pizza nights or just a general place to have a chat with both students and staff. The events occur a couple of times each term and allow for you to meet and get to know other people within Sociology. Sociology is one of the only departments that runs this programme, and it really highlights how welcoming and supportive the department is.

There is a plethora of resources available to help you academically both within the University itself and within the Sociology Department. The University’s library has an abundance of resources, from books, academic journals, newspapers, articles, DVDs. All of these are available for you to access either from the library itself or online.

The University offers a platform called ‘OneSearch’. This is basically the library but online, and it allows you to access lots of the resources in the library but from your computer. This is very helpful, as it means you can access resources easily. The virtual learning environment ‘Moodle’ is where you will find resources for each of your modules. The convenor for each module puts various resources on Moodle to help you with the course. These often include YouTube videos, Ted Talks, blogs, and academic journals. However, if you want even more information on a topic, your module convenor will gladly provide you with more resources if you ask them.

Throughout your Sociology degree you will be supported by both the Sociology department and the University. Everyone at Lancaster Uni wants to help you in any way they can so do not be afraid to ask for help or support.

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Emma is a third year undergraduate at Lancaster University and is studying Sociology.

Lancaster University employs students to create authentic content from a student perspective. All views expressed in this article are those of the students, and do not necessarily reflect the views or position of Lancaster University.

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