Residence Life

How Residence Life can help you

Every student living in campus accommodation is allocated to a specific Residents’ Assistant (RA), every off-campus student will also have the opportunity to meet with an RA for support. The RA is a full-time student and a part-time Residence Life staff member who resides in on-campus accommodation.

The RAs will be welcoming you to your new community and answer any questions you may have. They will organise a number of events to help you settle in, make new friends, experience new things, and feel part of your new community. The RAs will often contact you via your Essex email to let you know about the different activities and events they are planning and invite you to get involved.

If you’re living on campus your RA will email you to arrange a first flat meeting to help you create a flat agreement with your flatmates. They will also share lots of information to help you adjust to University life. The RAs have experience of living on-campus and receive training to make them a great person to go to for advice or support.

Your RA can help you with:

• Welfare support
• Communal issues
• Interpersonal conflict
• Advice and signposting

As well as being able to help with various problems or concerns, the RAs also have information about other sources of help and support available on and off-campus. Your RA will usually be able to assist you however, on some occasions they may need to refer the matter to a Senior Residents’ Assistant, Residence Life Coordinator, or Security depending on the situation.

Off-campus support

Residence Life provides support to off-campus students too. You might encounter issues whilst living in privately rented accommodation or just want some friendly advice.

Res Life Open Door is a drop-in service facilitated by Residents’ Assistants for students who live off campus and who are looking to get advice or guidance on university living experiences. Whether you want to have a chat, don’t know where to find the solution to your problem, or have a question to ask the Residence Life team, our Residents’ Assistants are here to help. The drop-in is accessible via Zoom, every Wednesday between 12pm–1pm during term time.

• Zoom link for Colchester campus students
• Zoom link for Southend campus students

Students can also contact us with non-urgent general enquiries via email at reslife@essex.ac.uk which we will respond to during normal office hours (Monday – Friday, 9am-5pm).

Further support:

All general enquiries that do not require an urgent solution should be directed to the Student Services Hub.

For support with your health and wellbeing during office hours, please contact the Student Wellbeing and Inclusivity Team.

For support out-of-hours with an urgent issue, students should contact Security.

A Residents’ Assistant or Senior Residents’ Assistant will be working for a period each evening in both Colchester and Southend. Depending on the needs on any particular evening this may involve; hosting flat meetings, checking in on residents, hosting a drop-in to answer any questions, and provide support or dealing with any other Residence Life matters. Please see the poster in your flat kitchen for more information and contact details.