Advice

Referrals

The Advice Service is a free, confidential and impartial service based at the Students’ Union. We can support students with academic, housing, financial or general student life queries. You can find lots of information on our website about the advice and support we offer.

If you are a member of University staff and would like to refer a student to the SU advice service, please use our contact form.

Click here for the SU Advice Service Contact Form

All referrals should be made with permission of the student to ensure that they wish to engage with our service. We will contact the student directly but please complete as much detail as possible in the form so that we can capture any required information.

Please also include your name, the reasons for the referral and confirmation that you have the student’s consent in the ‘Your Enquiry’ section of the form.

If you have any questions about how we may be able to support, you can find lots of information on our website or you can email us on [email protected]

Opening Hours

We will be closed for the Christmas break from Friday 19th December - Monday 5th January. View our Support Over the Christmas Break page.

If you’re worried about a deadline, please be reassured that the days the University is closed for Christmas (23rd December - 5th January) do not count towards this. If you have a question about an academic matter, you can e-mail the Advice Service and we will respond from 5th January 2026 onwards.

• Monday:    10am – 4pm
• Tuesday:    10am – 4pm
• Wednesday:    10am – 4pm
• Thursday:    10am – 4pm
• Friday:    10am – 4pm

We are available all year round both in and out of term time. We close on weekends, public holidays and occasionally for staff training or administration days. We may also have occasional closed days due to short staffing.

Our Services

We offer advice through face to face, over the phone and by e-mail. Our face to face service is being available both in person and via video call. We can’t always guarantee that you will meet your advisor in person. If you would prefer a face to face meeting, please let us know.

If you are attending an in person meeting and you would like your advisor to wear a mask, please just ask.

Our aim is to provide our service in the most accessible way for you. We want our service to be accessible to all who need to use it.

We understand there may be times when we need to change the way we do things so that you can use our service. If you think we can help you by making some adjustments, please tell us.

Other ways to contact us

If you’re contacting us for the first time and would like to use e-mail, please fill in our contact form. Your enquiry will be sent through to our Advice mailbox.

Alternatively, you can phone us or visit our office.

Office : Find us on the 1st Floor of the Students’ Union. Our office can be accessed by any of the three main stairwells or by lift. The lift is located by the right-hand stairwell as you enter the SU from Oxford Road.

Tel : 0161 275 2952

E-mail / ongoing support : If you have an ongoing case the best way to stay in contact with your advisor is by e-mail or via our reception team. If there are any developments in your case and you would like further advice, please update us as soon as possible. You can e-mail us directly to provide us with updates about your case, phone us or drop in during our opening hours.

E-mail : [email protected]

E-mail Response Times

We aim to reply to e-mail enquiries within 2-5 working days. We usually reply to most e-mails within 2 working days, but our response times can be longer during periods of high demand or short staffing.

We prioritise enquiries by urgency. Where a deadline applies, we will try to get back to you within this timeframe, but we cannot guarantee this. We may also not be able to give advice at short notice.

We ask you to contact us at least 5 working days before any official deadline you are working to.

We understand that you may be very worried and could be facing challenging circumstances and we would like to reassure you that we'll always try our best to get back to you as soon as we can.

Confidentiality

The Advice Service is confidential. This means we won’t disclose your contact with the Service unless we have your permission or there are exceptional reasons.

There are some limited situations where we may share your information without your consent. For example:

• If you tell us about a significant risk of harm to yourself or others, we may have to report our concerns to the University or emergency services.
• We may be required to share information with third parties for the purposes of safeguarding children or adults at risk.
• There may also be occasions where we are required by law to disclose information e.g., in relation to criminal matters where a court order is issued.

If you’re enquiry relates to another department in the SU, we may contact or forward your e-mail enquiry to the team who can best answer your questions. Please tell us if you don’t want to us do to this.

Your Data

We are committed to treating your information with respect and ensure our processing complies with the UK Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). This sets out the different reasons for which an organisation may collect and process your personal data.

Legitimate interest is our main legal basis for processing your data. If you like to know more about the other conditions we use, please see our full Advice Service Privacy Statement.

How we use your information

We collect and record your personal information, details of your enquiry and any advice given. We also keep a record of any ongoing contact we have with you. We do this to ensure we are giving accurate and appropriate advice and so that we can offer ongoing support with your case. We also maintain records for quality purposes.

We store your information on our secure case recording system. This system is encrypted, and your case file is only accessible to staff involved in running the Service. Records are stored for 6 years after the date we close your case. After this time the records are destroyed.

We also process your information when you use our online contact form, or when we communicate with you by e-mail. If you would like more information about this, please see our Advice Service Privacy Statement.