Student welfare and wellbeing

We have several Mental Health First Aiders in the Department of Physics:

• Mery Fajardo
• Sebastien Guenneau
• Kayleigh Murphy
• Susan Parker
• Loli Sanchez
• Mark Scott
• Yoshi Uchida

You can find out more about Imperial College’s MHFA programme here: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/health-and-wellbeing/mental-health/mental-health-first-aid/

Students may suffer serious and unforeseen circumstances during their time at university that adversely affect their ability to complete an assessment task and/or their performance in the assessment.  All students should take the time to read and understand the College’s mitigating circumstances policy that can be found on that can be found on the Academic Governance website.  Students who are unsure about submitting a Mitigating Circumstances form should consult with their Personal Tutor, the Student Liaison Officer, the Disabilities Officer, or the Senior Tutor.

Key aspects of the policy are:

• The Mitigating Circumstances form must be submitted within ten working days of the assessment, although there are opportunities for late submission.
• All claims must be supported by independent documentary evidence. Only in exceptional cases should a student self-certificate.
• The Department of Physics is adopting a new system, Zinc, to process mitigating circumstances requests for undergraduates. If you are absent from college for more than 3 days, you should inform the senior tutor via the Absence Report form here. For absences of more than a week, you would need to provide medical evidence. If you miss an assessment (coursework or exam) due to illness or other unforeseeable and unavoidable circumstance, you should submit a mitigating circumstances request via Zinc at Zinc A Physics Student guide for Zinc is available. 
• You should submit any written work (e.g. reports, essays) in its latest form by the original deadline, even if it is unfinished. If this request is approved, you will be able to submit this work with a new deadline, and have that submission marked instead. There is no guarantee that Mitigating Circumstances claim will be upheld, or that deadlines will not have passed prior to the result being communicated.
• We will treat the information provided on your MC form as confidential and staff knowledge of your circumstances will be on a need to know basis.
• Chronic conditions are normally mitigated via the Alternative Examination Arrangements procedures.  Students are encouraged and supported by the Department to seek appropriate Alternative Examination Arrangements.
• The Senior Tutor emails students at various points during the academic year to remind them about the MC forms, policy and the dates of the two full Mitigating Circumstances Board meetings.
• The Mitigating Circumstances Board (MCB) is the meeting in which a small number of staff discuss student mitigating circumstances forms and supporting evidence.

The MCB decides on whether a student’s MCs are accepted or not.  The MCB also decides on what mitigation should be awarded.  Should we accept a student’s MC form and evidence, the most likely outcomes are a Full Credit Resit (FCR) for an affected exam or an extension for coursework assessment. The MCB does not award mark uplifts as an accepted MC claim outcome.

The MCB comprises the following departmental roles:

• Head of Physics Department
• Director of Undergraduate Studies
• Senior Tutor
• Examinations Coordinator
• Undergraduate Education Manager
• Disabilities Officer
• Student Liaison Officer

The MCB meets in full twice a year, once to discuss Year 3 and 4 MC forms and once to discuss Year 1 and 2 MC forms. A sub-MCB will meet frequently during the year to give timely responses to any MC forms.  A sub-MCB must have at least three members, from the list above, to be quorate.

The deferral of exams is only considered in exceptional circumstances.  More information on exam deferral can be found here:

• https://www.imperial.ac.uk/student-records-and-data/for-current-students/undergraduate-and-taught-postgraduate/exams-assessments-and-regulations/mitigating-circumstances/
• https://www.imperial.ac.uk/about/governance/academic-governance/academic-policy/exams-and-assessment/

FIND OUT MORE

While we want physics students to be challenged whilst they are studying at Imperial College, we are keen to help all students to overcome any difficulties they face due to additional or alternative learning requirements.   It is of the utmost importance to us that physics students fulfil their academic potential.  To that end, it is important that students let us know about any disability, specific learning difficulty or health problem (including mental health issues) as early as possible, so we can provide the necessary advice and support.  Some people don’t think of themselves as having a disability, but amongst the issues that we deal with regularly are:

• Specific learning differences (such as dyslexia, dyspraxia, AD[H]D)
• Autistic spectrum condition
• Hearing impairments
• Mental health conditions (such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression)
• Chronic medical conditions (such as epilepsy, arthritis, diabetes, Crohn’s disease)
• Eating disorders, alcohol and substance abuse and addiction
• Physical disabilities or mobility impairments
• Visual impairments

The Physics Department’s Disabilities Officer, Mery Fajardo, is the first point of contact for students with any additional learning requirements and chronic health (including mental health) conditions.  She is responsible for securing agreement for extra time in exams, arranging alternative exam sessions, providing notetaking, transcription and mentoring services.  She also ensures that student infrastructure needs (e.g. cameras, sound systems) are met within the Department.  She works closely with the Senior Tutor, the Student Liaison Officer, the College’s Disabilities Advisory Service (DAS) and all teaching staff.  Mery has an open-door policy, however, if she if isn’t available when you stop by, please email or call her to arrange an appointment.  

The College Disability Advisory Service (DAS) has offices on Level 5 of the Sherfield Building and may be reached by email or by telephone on 020-7594 8935.  DAS staff can advise and help students with a wide range of additional learning issues. More information on disabilities and exams can be found on the College DAS page on Alternative Exam Arrangements.

View the Disability Advisory Service – Induction video 2020-21

As well as physical ill-health, mental health problems can affect any of us at any time.  It is important to be mindful that anxiety and stress can become a routine part of life during your undergraduate studies, but if persistent can lead to serious health problems. It is also important to identify the source of stress, which can, for example, be linked to time management, procrastination or study skills issues.  The Student Liaison Officer can offer you a weekly or fortnightly appointment to help you with all these issues.  In addition, you may be referred to College Services such as the Study Skills sessions offered by DAS or the College’s Centre for Academic English.

If you are experiencing a period of any type of mental ill-health, there are several options are available to you for support and help in the Department, the College and NHS.

As a first point of contact, you may also want to talk to your personal tutor, Student Liaison Officer, Senior Tutor, or Disability Officer for advice.  You could also speak to one of the Department’s Mental Health First Aiders.  They may recommend that you consider consulting your GP, practice nurse, counsellor or therapist.

Professional counselling and therapy are available through the NHS; to access these services you need to make an appointment with your GP.  The College also provides talking therapy through its student counselling service.  This is meant as an interim service while you are waiting for an NHS appointment or therapy to start. The Student Counselling Service is located on Level 4 of the Sherfield Building is independent of the College academic structure.  All registered students of Imperial College London can make an appointment to meet with a Student Counsellor in the service.  The service is free and confidential, more information can be found here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/counselling/.

It is important to note that the College Counselling Service is currently experiencing a very high demand for consultations, resulting in waiting times of 4 to 8 weeks.  The Counselling Service will always offer you the first available appointment they have. 

If your situation is urgent, please make an emergency appointment to see your doctor. 

Imperial College Health Centre hold a Triage clinic held Monday to Friday from 08.30 until 10.00 am which is available for all students registered at the South Kensington Campus.

A comprehensive list of other sources of help, including crisis lines, can be found here: http://www.imperial.ac.uk/counselling/other-sources-of-help/

• Support for Women

If for any reason, you wish to seek advice from someone other than your personal tutor there are four members of staff who act as alternative departmental advisors for female students.  These advisors are listed below, three of them are women, and they are all happy to deal with female students’ issues:

Our alternative advisors are:
Prof Lesley Cohen (Blackett 912, l.cohen@imperial.ac.uk)
Dr Dave Clements (Blackett 1011, d.clements@imperial.ac.uk)
Prof Ji-Seon Kim (Blackett 909, ji-seon.kim@imperial.ac.uk)
Dr Yvonne Unruh (Blackett 1114, y.unruh@imperial.ac.uk)

• Support for LGBTQ+ Students

If for any reason, you wish to seek advice from someone other than your personal tutor there are members of staff who form the Physics Ally Network who act as alternative departmental advisors for LGBTQ+ physics students.  These advisors are listed here, and they have all been trained to deal and help with pastoral and academic issues, specific to LGBTQ+ student community.  They can also be identified by the rainbow Ally sticker on their door.

• Support for International Students

If for any reason, you wish to seek advice from someone other than your personal tutor there are members of staff who act as alternative contacts for international students.  These advisors are listed here, and they have all been trained to deal and help with specific pastoral and academic issues faced by the international student community.

• Student support funds
  It is likely that your time at Imperial College will be the first occasion on which you have had almost complete control over your finances and it is well known that this is not always easy.  If financial disaster, not of your own making, strikes, the College has hardship funds for home and overseas students.  Your Personal Tutor, the UEM or the Senior Tutor are the first port of call in these circumstances, and the earlier you address your problems, the greater the chance of finding a solution. Please visit Student Finance to find out more about the fund.

For information on the other types of support available to you through the College, including crime, sexual violence, harassment or bullying, please visit: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/student-support-zone/support/

For information on the College's mobile app, SafeZone, that allows staff and students to directly contact Security in case of an emergency please visit; https://www.imperial.ac.uk/estates-facilities/security/safezone/