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Stay in contact!

It is vitally important that you stay in contact with the department whilst out on placement.

As soon as you start your placement, or before if you are able, please fill out the IY placement agreement form, which you can find under our Forms & Documents page, arrange for your company to sign it, and return it to us. This not only tells us formally that you have found a placement, and where you are, but also lets us know that the company has taken responsibility for your wellbeing for the period of your employment.

You will be allocated an academic supervisor towards the end of the summer, when we know who is placed and where. They will establish contact via your Aberystwyth email account. Please check your Aber email account regularly. It is usually more convenient to use your work email account to keep in touch with your supervisor so as soon as you have this you should send it to both your supervisor and to cs-iy-admin@aber.ac.uk. You can also provide this information on your IY Confirmation Form, if you know it at that point. You should however continue to look at your university email at least once a week, since that is the way the university administration will contact you.

If you do not hear from the department by the end of September please email cs-iy-admin@aber.ac.uk - the chances are we cannot contact you for some reason.

Visits

If you are within the British Isles, we will visit you at least once during your placement. You are entitled to a second visit; if either you, your employer or your academic supervisor wants this, we will do it. If you are outside the British Isles, we do not guarantee to visit you, however we will do our best. If at any stage you feel you need a visit, please contact your supervisor and we will prioritise your visit. Your academic supervisor will organise visits on a mutually convenient day when both you and your line manager/supervisor is available. Visits normally last 1-2 hours, and your line manager should be available for at least some of that time.

If you are out on placement, and you are not sure who your visiting tutor is, email cs-iy-admin@aber.ac.uk.

Assessment

The assessment for the year comes 60% from the report you write (see guidelines below) and 40% from the employer's questionnaire. Fuller details on the assessment are given on the IY Assessment page. You should look for module CSS0060 and use the link in the Assessments Tab where the exact deadline will be specified. Please contact cs-iy-admin@aber.ac.uk if you have any difficulties. You can submit (and resubmit) any time until the deadline, and it is probably worth checking you have access to the submission page if you intend to submit near the deadline.

• Assessed IY report guidelines (please do use these!)

Fees & Tax

IY students (assessed sandwich year) can pay their fees directly to the University or can apply for tuition fee support via Student Finance (listed under 'sandwich' because the Finance Office terminology is slightly different from that used by the department). The university will receive electronic confirmation from the Student Loans Company for all students who have applied for tuition fee support and will contact those who haven't applied for funding and provide them with instructions on how to pay. It is important to ensure fees are paid promptly to avoid being locked out from the university network and email facilities, thus making it difficult for the university to contact you.

Returning to Aber

If you want to live in university accommodation when you return to Aber then you will need to apply in time. This is quite early so note that the university accommodation application deadline is usually towards the end of the autumn term.

Tax

You may find this tax information useful, but please consult your local tax office for definitive information, particularly if your situation is not straightforward. The figures in the document apply to the financial year 2020/21. Tax rates and allowances change every year in April. You can check the current figures on the HMRC website.

Proof of student status. Please contact the Academic Registry http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/student/ug-issues/academic-office/certification/ if you need documentary proof of your student status, for example to get exemption from council tax.