University of York restructures student support from December

The University of York is completely reshaping its student support system from 1 December 2025, moving wellbeing support away from colleges and into the Student Hub. It comes after a six month investigation found “there are very few people that engage with their college beyond first year.” The new strategy aims to stop students being bounced between services and make support easier to find.

Here’s what’s changing and why

In the simplest terms – colleges will focus on community, and the Student Hub will become the place to go for wellbeing support.

These changes are the first big step from a major overhaul the university announced in May, following a full review of wellbeing services, college structures, signposting, staff workloads, and how students experience support.

The review included mapping every support route currently used by students, surveys with wellbeing staff, departments, campus services and York Students’ Union, along with input from the Student Expert Panel, interviews, and comparison with other universities’ services.

The results showed that students found the system confusing, scattered and inconsistent, and staff didn’t have the structure or time to fix the issues raised: “A lot of the work that colleges do well is surrounding preventative wellbeing and increasing community, however it is difficult to make this a priority where there are high levels of reactive wellbeing cases to manage.”

Another issue identified was that once students have reached out for support, students are often require to contact multiple staff and explain their issues more than once: “Current support teams are working in silos from each other and not in tandem from a student facing perspective. Badly needs increased investment in systems in order to create a network of support and avoid students re-explaining themselves.”

What exactly changes on 1 December?

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Colleges are getting College Communities teams, whose whole job is to build connection, belonging and proactive wellbeing. They’ll run evens, support initiatives and help students feel part of a community.

But, they won’t be the first point of contact for wellbeing support. That’s moving elsewhere.

Students will still use the same college email addresses (like [email protected]) but they won’t be handling wellbeing case as they were before.

The Student Hub becomes central to all wellbeing support

The Student Hub is now the central point of contact for everything related to student support. College Wellbeing Officers still exist, but will be accessed through the Hub instead of through colleges.

Department based Student Wellbeing Officers are staying where they are, but will work in partnership with the Hub.

The Hub will handle mental health and general wellbeing, money and financial problems, private housing issues, and disability support.

‘We want to make sure every student feels supported, confident and connected in their College’

A University of York spokesperson said:

“We know Colleges are an integral part of how students experience university life here in York, and we want to make sure every student feels supported, confident and connected in their College. So, as part of a wider review of wellbeing services, we’ve carried out a detailed review of the current College life offer, which has involved talking to representatives from across our community, including student leaders and the Students’ Union.

Because of what we learned, we’re going to make some changes to our services: We aim to make it as easy as possible for students to find their community and make friends at York, and when students are in need of wellbeing support, ensure staff are better equipped to provide the right help and options.

Wellbeing Officers play a vital role in supporting students and the recommendation of our review is to give them extra backing up by including them as part of a specialist mental health and wellbeing section, rather than keeping them split across Colleges. This will improve access to best practices and clinical expertise, while ensuring they stay closely connected to student experiences.”

When will we feel the full effects?

Some behind the scenes changes started in May – new training, new structures and simplifying processes, but students will only visibly notice things change from the 1st December.

More changes are expected throughout the 2025/26 academic year as the university continues restructuring.