Academic Advice and Advocacy

Independent Academic Advice & Advocacy

 SSAA offers an independent advocacy service for all students. This independence is guaranteed under the SSAA Advocacy Independence Charter. The Charter sets out a number of requirements which apply to Student Academic Advisers when advising and advocating on behalf of a student. One of these is the requirement that the Student Academic Advisers must be completely independent and impartial.

Follow the link below for more information.

Advocacy Charter

Students who utilise the advocacy service are invited to make submissions to the Academic Advice and Advocacy Audit Panel about the independence of SSAA's Academic Advisors & Advocates.

If you would like to provide feedback on your experience please click here.

Academic Advisors - Who are we?

We are professional, experienced full time staff members employed to provide help, information and advocacy across a range of academic, administrative and personal issues.

Each year we assist hundreds of students with academic appeals, progress review meetings, grievances, special consideration applications, academic misconduct hearings (for example an allegation of plagiarism), discrimination and harassment matters.
Academic Advisors will listen to your issues and provide unbiased advice on the best way forward, the aim being to facilitate a constructive resolution as quickly as is practicable.

The service is FREE, CONFIDENTIAL and INDEPENDENT of influence from Swinburne staff as guaranteed by the Advocacy Charter.

Top 5 Academic Issues

• Academic misconduct
• Student misconduct
• Special Consideration
• Administrative and Interpersonal conflict
• "At Risk" issues and "Progress Review" hearings

At Risk

Many students receive an at risk notice each semester.

This notice is designed to draw your attention to the fact that your results have been poor and that if your results continue to be poor next semester you are at risk of possible exclusion from your program of study. Receiving this letter represents an opportunity to reflect on the possible reason for your poor performance, and to put in place steps that might assist you to improve your academic performance and avoid being at risk.

Do not assume that working harder next semester will be sufficient;
you need to take steps to improve your situation.

As soon as you receive an at risk letter we recommend you make an appointment with an academic advisor, who will help you manage your situation and help improve your results.

Show Cause:

If you have received a Show Cause notice from the University because you have most likely:

Failed 50% or more of your enrolled subjects in your last two Progress review Periods (these include Summer and Winter Terms)

OR

Failed at least one subject on three occasions.

Some specific courses, and particularly postgraduate students, have slightly different criteria.

If you do not reply to the Universitys notice within the specified time frame the University will assume that you no longer wish to study at Swinburne and exclude you from your program of study. It is therefore essential that you reply as soon as possible.

As soon as you receive a show cause letter we recommend you make an appointment with a Student Academic Advisor.

SSAA employs independent Student Academic Advisors to assist you to write your reply and help you with your case. They can also attend with you if you are asked to meet the Progress Review Committee.

When meeting with an advisor:

• Bring your student ID card
• Consider what outcome you are seeking
• Bring any/all correspondence (e.g. emails & letters) relating to your issue

What can we do for you?

• Help you discuss and resolve issues with your teacher/ lecturer about your course
• Help you arrange for a reassessment of your work if you think you have been unfairly treated
• Assist you in drafting a formal grievance letter
• Explain Swinburne’s policies and procedures
• Help you understand the processes for complaints and grievances
• Advocate with you at hearings and meetings
• Provide you with information on other services available to you at Swinburne and refer you to outside bodies where appropriate

What we can’t do:

• Make anonymous complaints. Natural justice dictates that people have a right to know the nature of a complaint against them if they are to respond. You may wish to consider a group complaint as an alternative
• Respond belatedly. Swinburne has very strict time lines for resolving grievances. Once this has passed it is very difficult for us to assist
• We cannot assist you with immigration and visa issues, we can refer you to appropriate advice.
• Provide personal counselling or legal advice. We can refer you to free and confidential counselling.

Contact details to make an appointment to meet an Academic Advisor on your campus can be found at http://myssaa.com.au/connect/contact-ssaa

Emails from SSAA

It has come to our attention that emails sent from Swinburne accounts have been blocked by some email providers. Most notably we are having difficulties with Yahoo. SSAA has had a number of emails bounce back over the past week from Yahoo so if you have contacted SSAA, have not had a response and only provided an external email account, please contact us again with your Swinburne Student email address and we will reply as soon as we can.