Academic support is an integral part of King’s especially within the BSc Psychology faculty. Support is available in several forms be it from lecturers, students or from our careers services team.
Personal tutors and student buddies
As a psychology student you will be provided with an academic tutor at the start of your first year who will stick with you until you graduate from your degree and be available to contact even after. You have group and individual tutor sessions a couple of times a year to catch up on your academic and personal progress. Having said that, I have definitely been in touch with my tutor for academic and personal support much more often than the pre booked sessions that they have been of massive help throughout!
A student buddy is another student, usually in the second or third year of the same course who is assigned to a group of first year students to help navigate them through university life and from a less formal student-to-student advice. Last year we created a Whatsapp group with our student buddy which was a great opportunity to ask about anything or get some advice.
GTAs, Lecturers and Student forums
You will familiarise yourself with student forums at the beginning of your degree as they are a great way to ask questions about the course while also helping other students. While lecturers and GTAs (doctorate students that run your seminars and practicals) are available to contact regarding individual queries through King’s email, student forums are designed for you to ask more general questions about a module you are covering. The psychology staff members usually reply in forums faster as the response and your question is available to everyone on the course and can be of huge help if you are stuck or misunderstood something on the course.
Student Representatives
Student representatives are students from your cohort who have been elected to act as mediators between staff and students. They are your colleagues, who will take matters relating to academics and student mental health to the program leaders and other staff members who will then act on these concerns and find reliable solutions. If you are feeling too pressured by studies or think a module is not running as smoothly as you expected it to, you can raise these issues with the representatives and they will make sure changes occur in the interest of students.
Library Services and LinkedIn learning
Each King’s Campus has a great library which is full of material that you may need for the course or for personal use. The Maughan library is the biggest library at King’s located at Strand, it is a beautiful old building that you can use to revise and find useful material. However you do not have to make the journey across the Themes to find what you need! As an
IOPPN student you will mostly be based at Guy’s and Denmark Hill campuses both of which have great library services – New Hunt’s House Library and Weston Education Centre Library.
You can use the facilities to book a room to work on a group project, use the silent rooms and quiet rooms (similar to silent but you’re allowed to snack) to study completely undisturbed as well as the library lending services to take some books home (just don’t forget to return them after!).
To learn more about the campus you’re based on please visit: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/offerholderhub/campus-tours
In regards to additional learning, King’s also has a partnership with LinkedIn where hundreds of LinkedIn learning courses are available to you for free. You will use some of them as part of your Foundation Graduate Attributes course in your first year but are free to use any you want whenever you feel like it.
King’s Careers Services and British Psychological Society (BPS) membership
King’s Careers services are available to all students at Bachelor’s, Masters and PhD courses. The King’s CareersConnect service provides job opportunities ranging from part-time jobs that you can do alongside your studies such as tutoring, brand ambassador, tech jobs etc as well as internships and graduate and postgraduate level jobs. What I like about the job availability on this site is its range and the fact that some opportunities are available to King’s students exclusively and you would not see them advertised on other traditional job sites.
There are also career advice appointments that you can use as many times as you like throughout the term which can help you explore the best career paths for you to use your skillset as well CV and cover letter advice and interview practice once you start applying for specific job opportunities. I personally used all these services extensively throughout my time at King’s and they really helped me navigate through my career journey.
Another factor that I actually didn’t know before applying to Psychology at King’s, is that in your second year, you will receive a free BPS student membership. This is an amazing opportunity offered by very few universities, it gives you a fantastic chance to network with academics, professionals and like-minded students in the psychological disciplines. It also gives you exclusive offers for conferences, webinars and job opportunities! I personally connected my account with my LinkedIn profile and within days received a very large amount of connections with new colleagues.
A lot more support is available for you if you are struggling with any academic related problems. The community is very understanding and helpful when it comes to academic support.
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