Student and study skills support at Essex Business School

Essex Business School (EBS) have a passion for supporting students at every step of their academic journey to prepare them for their futures. One of the ways they support students is through developing academic study skills. Dr Lorcan Whitehead from the EBS Learning Team tells us more about how supporting students' study skills helps them to achieve at Essex and beyond.

How does the EBS Learning Team support students?

Our role is dedicated to helping you achieve the best grade possible and reach your full potential. Whether you’re struggling or you just want to see if you can push your grades even higher, we want you to reach out to us and find out what we can help you with during your studies.

My team are available to offer our services in various ways, including 1:1 support. This support is available when you need it, by appointments and also through walk ins – we have an open-door policy! We also run group workshops, provide online study resources, employ students to deliver support with things like maths and using the Bloomberg data platform, and work closely with the academics delivering your modules to ensure our support is as relevant to you as possible.

What can the EBS Learning Team help with?

We can help with a wide range of topics including, but not limited to:

• Understanding referencing
• Using your feedback to help you improve
• Discovering study resources
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Developing your presentation skills
• Navigating group work
• Writing your dissertation
• Managing your time effectively

What about helping with exams?

We can also help you with preparing for your exams. We know exams can seem quite daunting, especially if you haven’t taken an exam recently. That is why we’re on hand to offer practical support and advice on a range of exam-based topics including:

• How to manage the revision process
• Identifying what you need to revise
• Developing good revision aids
• Techniques to help you remember revision material
• How to analyse exam questions

And how about support with English language?

We have a very diverse cohort of students at EBS, and we understand that for a large proportion of you, English isn’t your first language. 

As well as the resources mentioned above, the Skills for Success team also offer a range of help including improving your academic writing, speaking skills (including pronunciation and presentations), academic reading, grammar and exam preparation.

We believe undergoing a degree in a second language is a fantastic achievement. You will get to experience a different education system, challenge yourself to develop your English and enhance your skillset. 

We see this as a great opportunity to grow and develop, and the best way to do that is by making full use of the extensive support we have available to you. 

How can students contact the EBS Learning Team?

The academic skills support we provide is designed for anyone who wants to make the most of their degree and achieve the best possible grades they can. We really encourage you to get in touch with us to find out what help is available and make use of our support.

Like any other type of skill, good advice and practise are the key to improving your academic skills. Everyone has things they can work on and areas to improve. So our main message to you is be proactive about seeking support – don’t wait until it is too late! Whether you are currently finding things challenging or not, we want you to make the most of the opportunity our support offers to help you to achieve the best possible grades that you can. 

Essex Business School students are welcome to contact the EBS Learning Team at any time via email or knock on their door (EBS.2.33) if you need any help.

Student feedback

"As a part-time postgraduate student on the Executive MBA, it has been quite some time since I have written an academic essay. To begin with, I found the essay assignments overwhelming as I wanted to include as much information as possible to show how much I had read and learnt, this resulted in my arguments not being particularly clear and going off on a tangent rather than focusing on the question to be answered.

I have met with Dr Lorcan Whitehead on several occasions to request help with my essays. He reviewed my drafts and provided constructive feedback on both the content and the structure. Furthermore, I also confused myself how to reference. My previous undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications are in Law and used a different referencing system to EBS. The Harvard style of referencing was therefore completely new to me, and Dr Lorcan Whitehead not only explained to me what it is, he also guided me on which parts of my essay should be referenced and the correct way to do so.

This support and advice has been invaluable to me. I have no doubt this support has helped me in achieving my grades so far." - Charlotte Turnbull, Executive MBA student

"I was helped greatly by the EBS Learning Team. At a time, I felt like I couldn’t go on with university anymore or that I would fail, they gave me the hope and push to turn things around. After a setting up a conversation with the team, I was helped in so many ways.

I was offered help with my dissertation, help with mental health, help with navigating my way around the course to turn things around and just genuine support that you’d only imagine coming from family and friends.

There was never a time I organised a meeting or asked for some help and it wasn’t received. Without the EBS Learning Team, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to finish my course so I’m extremely grateful for the help and support they provided me." - Accounting and Finance student

"Lorcan and the EBS team were a great help to me during a challenging period.

University is a big place with a lot going on, so sometimes finding the right person to speak with can be daunting, however Lorcan immediately put me at ease and was thoroughly supportive throughout my ongoing problems.

Without the EBS learning team, I would have struggled with where to go and what to do. In essence, they’re a caring, lovely group of people and I encourage everyone to come in and say hello! You’ll be surprised with what help is on offer." - Benjamin Appleby, final year BSc Accounting and Finance student