The College provide many types of pastoral care to our students from general queries about living in Ireland to a referral service where we will refer you to specific mental health, medical and wellbeing providers, including hospitals and dentists where necessary, such that you are and feel truly taken care of during your time with us.
Living and studying in a foreign country for the first time can be lonely at times. Studying at an international college through a language that is not your first language can also be hard, especially near exams and at assessment times. We are here to help you so please tell any of our staff if you are struggling mentally in any way. While our staff are not trained counsellors or mental health professionals, they will be able to refer to you people who are and who will give you the type of support that you need. To help you access such mental health and counselling support services, UniHaven College offers 6 free multilingual counselling and coaching sessions through our partner, Spectrum.Life in conjunction with their trained and specialist counsellors. Your first 6 counselling sessions are free of charge and can be accessed online if necessary. Should you want more than 6 sessions, the sessions after the first 6 will be paid for by you. Every student will be given access to the Spectrum.Life website from which they can request such support. Spectrum.Life also provide emergency mental health support. Full details about how to access such supports will be provided at induction.
If you need any help outside of hours, an emergency out of hours phone is always carried by one of our staff. Its number is 00353 89 2647567 which will also be provided to you at induction and registration after you arrive at the College. Please ring this for any need that cannot wait until the following day to be sorted. Minors will also have been provided with emergency contact details by our partner Godsil. Emergency services can be contacted by dialling 112 or 999 even when out of credit/coins/cards.
We want you to succeed! If you are struggling with your studies, we will help you at our weekly tutorials and will provide extra teaching and tutoring should you need it. Your expected class and tutorial hours are outlined in our Programme Handbook which also includes your weekly timetables. Our College Calendar outlines key semester and exam dates.
Students shall attend all assessments, including written examinations, for the modules on which they are registered and submit coursework for assessment as required. Students must successfully pass all core modules and options to successfully complete the programme. Full details are in the UniHaven Quality Assurance Manual, the UniHaven Assessment and Awards Policy and the Programme Handbook.
A small physical library of core reading books will be available at the College. Online libraries to access online learning materials will be provided to all students/. University libraries may also be available.
Our award-winning learning management system (LMS) allows you to easily access your learning materials and guides and will be used for assignment submission in many instances. Your will be shown how to use the LMS at induction.
In Ireland, students who are under the age of 18 at enrolment are classified as ‘minors’ and as children by law under Irish child protection and child welfare legislation. This places specific duties on UniHaven College and its partners, including accommodation partners, to make special arrangements to ensure their safety and their ease of transition into life in Ireland to study here. The fact that minors are likely living away from home for the first time only adds to UniHaven College’s duty of care towards such younger students. If you are a minor, you will be dealt with differently to other students until you reach the age of 18 in some circumstances. This will include the need for someone to accompany you to
- Medical Care including Appointments.
- Emergency Care.
- Garda (Policy) Stations/Offices for Visa Purposes.
UniHaven has taken the following steps to ensure younger students are looked after as appropriate to their age as follows:
- Staff are Garda vetted to ensure that none of our staff have any criminal or other convictions that would get in the way of the College providing a safe environment in which you will study.
- Staff have been trained in the need to and how to ensure that all minors are treated fairly and age-appropriately while studying at our College.
- UniHaven has appointed a Child Welfare Officer who will be your point of contact if you are a minor and if you have any serious welfare concerns. This person will be made known to you at induction.
- UniHaven has appointed an external body, Godsil Education, to act as guardian nominee to minors unless you have someone who can play this role for you and for whom your parents will confirm in writing to us, e.g., a relative living in Ireland. Godsil will provide out-of-hour emergency care and point of contact services as well as in-hours medical appointment and Garda appointment accompanying services. They can arrange home stay accommodation for minors or minors can stay at UniHaven's Dublin accommodation provider that is a short bus and a short train journey (approx. 60 minutes in total) from the College. You will pay Godsil directly for the use of their services.