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?
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.
You’ll still use the same college email addresses (like goodricke@york.ac.uk) but they won’t be handling your 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.
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.
