Dear Colleagues,

I hope this message finds everyone well and your semester is off to a good start.

Student Reasonable Adjustment information: please ensure that you check and action any reasonable adjustment information for students.

Student records may be flagged either green or orange on Sussex Direct, indicated by a coloured banner when viewing teaching lists or Student Details. The colour indicates the level of additional needs the student may have and the extent of the reasonable adjustments required to minimise barriers to learning. 

Green flag: all students identifying a disability at enrolment, or who have well-managed needs, will be provided with standardised (green) adjustments. These standard adjustments are listed here: Advice for Staff - Reasonable Adjustments (log in required). There is no additional document on Sussex Direct.

Orange flag: all students who require additional, individualised changes to their teaching delivery or assessments will be provided with enhanced (orange) adjustments. These will also have a document detailing their adjustments, uploaded to Sussex Direct.

More information can be found on the Supporting disabled students pages on Staff Hub, and guidance on inclusive teaching via Educational Enhancement.

Attendance Recording: you can find step-by-step guidance from IT Services on recording attendance at teaching sessions here: attendance recording guidance from ITS.

Please ensure that attendance is recorded, and that registers are backfilled as soon as possible following the teaching session. Staff can backfill and edit registers using Sussex Mobile up to 7 days after the teaching session (or by using Sussex Direct if later) – this is detailed in the guidance above.

This ensures that attendance reports can be as up-to-date as possible, and helps to identify where students may be experiencing challenges with their studies.

Information for students on attendance can be found here on Student Hub.

Module Evaluation Questionnaires (Semester 1): if you were a module convenor last semester, please ensure that students on your module have received a response to MEQ feedback.

Closing the feedback loop to students, including those that didn't respond to the MEQs, on any actions taken and/or reflecting what was heard through the feedback is important for demonstrating the value of student voice and encouraging higher responses in future.

Thank you to all for your help with these points and kind wishes.

Professor Graeme Pedlingham

Deputy Pro-Vice Chancellor for Student Experience
University of Sussex