Communicating with Staff and Students

Communicating with staff

You will need to communicate with staff – lecturers, tutors, administrators, and support staff – while you’re at University of Galway. Most of your communication will either be in person or by email. Things that you might need to inform or ask staff about could include:

• Absence or illness
• Impact of a disability or specific learning difficulty
• Academic difficulties
• Skills development
• Information about timetables, registration, field trips, venues, and so on
• Assignments or exams
• Personal issues

More positively, you may wish to thank staff, or engage with lecturers or tutors about their module content or research.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help from staff. It can be a good idea to ask a classmate or friend, or to check the NUI Galway website or Canvas first, to see if your question can be answered there. If not, you will find that the vast majority of staff at NUI Galway are welcoming and will be delighted to help with your query.

Some lecturers have ‘office hours’ when you can drop in without an appointment. Most College, School and Discipline offices are open during office hours and you can pop in or drop off documents without a prior appointment. Many of the University’s support services have set opening hours where you can drop in without an appointment as well – you can find these on the University of Galway website.

Sometimes you may need to email a member of staff – perhaps to arrange a face-to-face meeting or to alert them to a difficulty that you are experiencing. See our guide to emailing staff if you are unsure how to address staff by email, and check out our email templates (located at the bottom of this page) for sample emails to staff about common issues.

Communicating with students

Of course, you will also communicate with other students – your peers – during your time at University of Galway. Students often set up WhatsApp or other group pages to exchange course-related information and advice. Check out our guide to communicating with your peers for some handy tips and issues to be aware of if you participate in such groups.

If you are working with other students on a group project or assignment, see the Team-working at NUI Galway section of the Academic Skills Hub.

One last tip: try putting the phone away and connecting with other students in person every now and again! Say hello to your classmates and strike up a conversation while waiting for a lecture to begin, rather than staring into your phone. It may be old-fashioned, but it’s a great way to start connecting with the people around you and to begin to feel that you are part of a learning community.