Student Support
You will find that staff at City College Birmingham will do everything they can to help and support you in your studies and with any other concerns you have that might affect your life at the college.
Tutorial Support
Your personal tutor is central to the support and guidance you will receive during your studies. They will work with you to plan and review your personal, professional and academic progress. Your tutor is there to provide you with essential help and advice on a wide range of areas. Personal tutorials form an important part of your college life.
As well as being a major source of information, your tutor will provide valuable help and support throughout your period of study. They can help you make many of the important decisions regarding your programme of study and will discuss the best module choices for you and your future career.
Careers and Educational Guidance
The college’s Career Advisers will offer you impartial guidance before you come to college to help you in your choice of programme or career. Once you are enrolled on a programme, they will help you to decide on your next step, whether it is further study, training or employment.
Careers Advisers can help you to plan and manage your future career. As a student you will have access to a wide range of information relating to careers and employment opportunities.
All Higher Education students take part in an employability skills enrichment programme. This programme is delivered by members of the Student Services Team who work closely with Personal Tutors and Programme Leaders. The programme enables students to reflect upon their employability skills profile and identify improvement targets. Students have found the programme to be invaluable when they come to apply for competitive jobs.
Study Skills Help
The college’s Learning Resource Centre is a particularly useful resource for students who would like to re-familiarise themselves with study and revision methods. Members of the Learning Resource Team support students when they are completing research for assignments or using the internet and computers. There is also specialist help for students with Dyslexia or for those whose first language is not English.
Learning Resource Centres
There is a Learning Resource Centre (LRC) at each college campus which is resourced to support student learning. As well as a stock of books and journals, the centres provide students with free access to the internet, CDs, videos, audio visual packages and CD-ROMS.
Students can access specialist electronic resources subscribed to by the college both on site and off. These resources include online journals and newspapers. Students studying for foundation degrees also have access to the library and learning resources available at the validating university.
Computer Access
Recognising the importance of information technology and computers in your study, every student is issued with their own secure computer user ID, their own email account and a secure networked data storage area. We make every effort to ensure that City College Birmingham students have easy access to facilities and equipment.
This includes free use of Open Access computer areas with networked computers all of which feature Windows, Microsoft Office, filtered internet access and the appropriate teaching software. To further support your learning, students can access an increasing range of learning resources and links through Moodle which is the college’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).
Student Feedback
The college welcomes and actively encourages feedback from students. Feedback is used by staff to help them improve the quality of the learning experience provided for students. You will be consulted about the whole of your experience as a higher education student at City College Birmingham, via:
- Higher Education Student Focus Group meetings
- Student Satisfaction Surveys
- End of Module Student Evaluation Questionnaires
Higher Education Student Representatives attend Higher Education Board of Studies Meeting. Your personal tutor and programme leader will give you details of how you can get involved.
