Who We Are
What We Do
How We Work With You
Contacting Us
Who We Are
The Guild currently employs three Education Officers to work directly with students. Each of the officers are able to provide the services listed here - but there is also some specialization such as undergraduate/postgraduate studies, disability issues and welfare support. All of our staff hold current certificates/degrees in welfare or social work
What We Do
We provide direct student assistance in academic matters and financial matters and can also help if you have an issue but don’t quite know where to go. This assistance is in the form of information, support and advocacy and is available to all Guild members. Further to this, the Education Officers provide support to student representatives and are able to let them know where matters of policy are effecting students. You can contact an Education Officer if you:
- Are having problems with your studies
- Disagree with a decision that the university has made
- Feel you have been treated unfairly
- Want to make a complaint about something that is happening at university such as: the quality of a service received, the quality of your education, the behaviour/actions of a staff member etc.
- Need help with your finances
- Need help but just don’t know where to go
- Would just like to talk to someone
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How We Work With You
Students often have questions about how we work and what we will do. Below are a list of principles that we work by when assisting you:
Confidentiality means that we have an electronic and paper recording system that we keep secure and that our records are kept confidential. Our records are separate to the university and we do not disclose anything that you say to us unless there are significant concerns for the safety and welfare of you or others, or where we are required to by law. It also means that we do not take any action on what you tell us without your consent.
Respect means that we recognise that this is your life and you are responsible for it. While we may provide information about options and provide assistance as requested by you, we respect the decisions that you make. We will discuss with you the possible outcomes of decisions that you are making and talk about alternative decisions, but ultimately the decisions are yours to make.
Empowering means that we do not take action on your behalf without your direction. Except where there is a risk to you or others as indicated above in confidentiality, we believe that you are disempowered if we take control of your life out of your hands. It is our role to assist you with editing letters, but not in writing them for you. We can also look at emails you wish to send or discuss a conversation that you want to have with a member of staff. If you are attending meetings, then we can come with you to witness what goes on and also to lend our expertise to the process that is applied. It is not for us though to make the decisions about what you are going to do. It also means though that we will be proactive where you are vulnerable or not coping well.
Recognising limitations means that we are not always the right people for you to be talking to or seeking help from. We have a specific job to do and do not necessarily have the time or expertise needed for some forms of support. For example, where you need ongoing counselling it is better for us to look at possible agencies that we can refer you to. This means that you will get to see someone on an ongoing basis and this person will also have the skills/knowledge/resources needed to assist you.
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Contact Us
You can contact us by phone or email or in person – our details are below. It is worthwhile noting here some points about our contact with you:
- Appointments will usually be made with our receptionist (number listed below) as she manages our diary
- 45 minutes is usually allocated for an appointment. We do allow an hour, but we often have to commence work for you and this allows us some time to start on that before we have to move on to another student. If you think that you will need longer than 45 minutes, you should discuss this with our receptionist and she can book in a longer appointment. We do need to stick to our allocated times to ensure that other students get the access and services they need.
- You need to allow a few extra minutes when you come in for your first appointment as we need you to fill out our registration form, you only need to fill this form out once.
- If you are going to be late then you should contact reception. It is often not possible to see you if you are late as we will have items in our diary to do following on from your appointment and so we will have to reschedule.
- We do prioritise working with you, but this does need to be balanced all the time with other students who also are accessing our support.
- Try and bring as much information with you as possible. So if you are applying for financial assistance, then bring with you any evidence of income (ie Centrelink statements or payslips) or expenditure (ie. Rent book, bills) and this will mean that you will be able to access loans etc. faster. If you are seeking help with an academic matter like an appeal then bring with you a copy of your academic transcript or in the case of a complaint, any letters/emails that have already been exchanged.
- If you are unhappy with the service you have received then please let us know. You can discuss this with the Senior Education Officer, or in the event that your issue is with the Senior Education Officer you can discuss your concerns with the Guild President or Managing Director.
- To improve services your feedback is very important. Please feel free to provide any feedback and/or suggestions for change. We also send our surveys periodically to check on what you thought of the type of service and quality of service you received - so please take some time to complete these.
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| Opening Hours: | 8.30am - 5.00pm, Monday to Friday |
| Location: | Ground floor, Guild Village, near Bankwest ATM machine. |
| Mailing Address: | M300, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley Western Australia 6009 |
| Phone: | +61 8 6488 2295 |
| Fax: | +61 8 6488 1200 |
| Email (general): | enquiries@guild.uwa.edu.au |
| Email (confidential): | education@guild.uwa.edu.au |
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