Student success at heart of service

You don’t need to be completely lost to benefit from a bit of direction. Laura Hewson talks with Student Development Group Leader Hannah Steiner-Mitchell about what the service offers and how their advisers can help tauira choose the best path possible.

Empowering tauira to achieve their goals at university and beyond – that’s the main mission for the team at Student Development.

“University systems can sometimes seem complicated to students and even to staff,” Group Leader Hannah Steiner-Mitchell says.

“Our advisers are committed to providing tauira with expert programme information and advice that can help them plan their time here at Otago and to achieve their future goals and aspirations.”

Student Development – which includes 20 student advisers from a range of backgrounds – takes a holistic approach to helping students, which means that as well as offering advice on planning courses, the team is also able to connect students with any support they may be needing.

“This is really key for us. There are so many great people, services and support teams across campus, and everyone wants to see students succeed,” Hannah says.

“So, although a student may come to us to talk about papers or their degree, our conversations may go down another path. If we recognise someone may not be doing so well (it could be any part of their wellbeing – social, emotional, physical etc) we will make sure the student knows about the support they could be accessing.”

There are various ways to access help from Student Development (see below), but one of the most popular is to attend a 30-minute appointment or drop in for a one-on-one meeting with an adviser, during which time students can discuss their study direction, life goals or any struggles they may be having.

“We can’t tell students what to do, but we can present all their options and help them make an informed decision.”

Hannah recommends tauira talk with an adviser in their first year to ensure they know what the service offers, what supports are available and also to learn about any opportunities they may want to get involved in later in their degree.

“This could be something such as going on a Global Exchange where we help students understand how to plan an exchange and what semester might work best within their unique degree.

“Checking in with us each year after that is also a good idea to ensure students feel confident they’re on track with their degree and that they’re making informed decisions.”

Tauira can seek advice any time throughout their studies at Otago and can come back as many times as they like, Hannah says.

“There are times of the year where we see higher demand, and this is typically between when results are released and a semester starting. For example, in the first week of Semester 2 this year, our team of advisers spoke with over 600 tauira in person – that’s over 100 a day. During this time our focus tends to be getting students set up for that coming semester, including ensuring they are feeling connected with the right supports.

“Also, once paper selection for 2025 opened, we started to see an increase in demand for our appointments.”

Student Development advisers also support students whose studies may not have gone as well as they’d hoped.

“There are a lot of students where their studies don’t take a linear path and we hope we can help them know that they’re not alone, that there are many students in this situation and that they’re still very much a part of the University and we’re here to get them to where they’d like to go.

“The great thing with these conversations is that there are so many options for these students and that this isn’t the end of the road. So, although these can be really challenging conversations it can also lead to some excellent outcomes and options for students.”

Otago offers a lot of flexibility, which is part of what makes it great, Hannah says.

“Students can change their degree at almost any point of their time at Otago (if they’re meeting regulations, of course) and our advisers really enjoy the challenge of mapping out degrees in this way.

“If a student takes a subject in second year and has a ‘I’ve found what I love’ moment, then our team are definitely here to support working out how to make that a focus of their degree.”