The University of Montpellier is always ready to help students in difficulty
Since the beginning of the health crisis, the University of Montpellier has been fully mobilized to support students in difficulty.
In addition to the measures taken during the first lockdown and in view of the potential risk of dropping out, the UM has initiated several additional actions focusing on 3 areas:
- Educational continuity
- Social and psychological support
- Maintaining social ties
Educational continuity
- free access for all students⸱e⸱s to Zoom Education and Microsoft Office 365 Education licenses;
- financial assistance for connection (in addition to 4G packages and computers supplied by the Region);
- an additional position for a disability coordinator to support students with disabilities (as part of the Agil Hybrid project, a call for projects involving the hybridization of higher education courses).
Social and psychological support
- setting up a network of "watchers" who call new baccalaureate holders. 40 students were recruited and trained to call nearly 6,000 new students at the university. The aim was to inform them about the university's services and to detect those who were in difficulty;
- Maintain student contracts (library, student centers, etc.);
- recruitment of an additional psychologist (preventive medicine) ;
- doubling of the FSDIE social aid budget, with larger amounts of aid granted;
- mobilization of student health relays on the prevention of student malaise (production of a brochure, communication on networks), ... .
Maintaining social ties
Offering remote activities and increasing the number of sessions (dematerialized Art & Culture workshops, organization of webinars with artists, I-talks workshop (public speaking), video clips of sewing workshops with a kit given to registrants to practice at home,......), etc.
Recruitment of student prevention ambassadors Covid-19, to raise awareness of the need to wear masks and adopt barrier measures at the UM, 43 students were recruited in September at 11 UM sites (including sites far from Montpellier and BUs), and two washable masks were donated to students.
Under the impetus of the President, the Vice President for Social Responsibility and the Student Vice President, all the departments and central services concerned, as well as the UFRs, Schools and Institutes, are mobilized to provide the best possible assistance to students, while maintaining the values of fairness and solidarity.