If you have ever logged onto your UniSA portal to find that you have an unsatisfactory grade, you’re up for preclusion from your degree, or you’ve been caught plagiarising, UniLife student advocates Marieke de Graaf and Luis Gardeazabal are here to help.
“Basically as student advocates, we try and help students to understand the Assessment Policy Procedural Manual and we try to help them out in whatever conflict they’ve got,” Mr de Graff said. “We try to mediate and help give them a voice.
“A lot of students, especially international students, struggle communicating their needs and can often be scared,” he said.
Student advocates have students’ best interests at heart and they offer friendly, free advice on academic issues and how to deal with them.
“We’re confidential. We’re always on the student’s side, not on the University’s,” Mr de Graff said.
“We usually invite them (the student) over for a meeting, have a chat about what’s going on and find out what their options are.”
From there, student advocates will accompany a student to any meeting they have with an academic or university committee.
Mr de Graff said it’s better to contact UniLife student advocates sooner rather than later.
“If you feel like you’re going to get in trouble for whatever reason, I think it’s always better to come and see us before anything goes wrong,” he said.
So if you’re in any academic trouble, do not hesitate to book an appointment with a UniLife student advocate at any UniLife office, or you can send an email to unilife.advocate@unisa.edu.au.
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