Advocacy & Welfare

Overview

The Advocacy and Welfare team provides independent, free, and confidential advocacy services to all enrolled students at Flinders University who are experiencing academic, administrative, financial or welfare difficulties. The Advocacy and Welfare team is a service provided by the Flinders University Student Association (FUSA).

The primary role of our academic advocates is to provide students with advice and support regarding the University’s policies and procedures, and to ensure that students understand their rights and options under policy. Academic advocates ensure that students are fairly represented by providing relevant information, referrals, and advice.

Our registered Financial Counsellor provides information, support and advocacy to students experiencing financial difficulty, and advises students regarding the University’s financial processes. This includes applying for tuition fee instalments, budgeting, understanding which debts are priorities, negotiating with creditors, accessing grants and/or concessions, and referral to external services in the community.

We also provide welfare support including Emergency Financial Assistance, Interest Free $500 Loans, Financial Support Grants, and information on Centrelink payments.

Staffing

The Advocacy and Welfare Team is staffed by 3.1 FTE staff members. In 2022, the team initially comprised of Team Leader and Financial Counsellor Helen Laity, Academic Advocates Ally Drew and Ali Barnes and part-time Financial Counsellor Stacy White. In May, we were joined by 2 more Academic Advocates – Ryan Colsey and Christine Bennetts-Gibson.

Case Management

Where the previous 2 years of COVID-19 restrictions required us to adapt to constantly changing conditions, 2022 saw a gradual return to ‘normal’ in terms of the delivery of services to students. Although we continued to provide appointments via Microsoft Teams and phone, we were pleased to be able to meet with students face to face once again. However, the lessons learned from the pandemic years have not been lost and we are keen to continue to provide flexible service delivery to those students who are not able to access the Bedford Park campus.

Our case numbers for academic advocacy and financial counselling were largely on par with 2021’s figures. Similarly, the issues we assisted students with remained relatively in tune with those of 2021 although we saw an increase in the number of students seeking support and advice with the remission of fees process. Each case, or student, can present with multiple issues and in 2022 we supported 789 students with 985 issues.

Academic Advocacy

Of the 580 Academic issues the most common were:

Financial Issues

Of the 405 Financial issues the most common were:

Grants and Emergency Financial Assistance (EFA)

Our Emergency Financial Assistance program distributed food vouchers, food parcels and transport assistance to the value of $24,290 to 216 students on 349 occasions.

We opened applications for Financial Support Grants in July 2022 and 50 students were successful in each receiving a grant of $500, a total of $25,000.

We managed the Parking Support Subsidy for the University to the eligible students and distributed a total of $7,930 worth of parking subsidy to 131 applicants in the form of Cello park vouchers and reimbursements.

Partnerships

In 2022 we continued our partnership with Uniting Communities as a resource for students experiencing ongoing financial difficulties who were seeking extra assistance or alternative support beyond what we were able to provide.

We also partnered with Anglicare SA who administered our Emergency Financial Assistance program during the University Christmas Closure period in 2022, as they have for the previous two years.

Top 3 Colleges By Case Number

1 2 3

College of Nursing & Health Sciences

College of Science & Engineering College of Education, Psychology & Social Work