That’s the message to staff and students from the Student Care and Reporting Network in support of ‘Advocate’, Macquarie’s new Student Care and Reporting system.

Launched earlier this month, Advocate brings together a number of existing reporting and support pathways under the one umbrella.

It makes it simpler and easier for students and staff to ask for assistance and/or report their concerns about a student.

Advocate also makes it easier for the different teams which make up the Student Care and Reporting Network to work together to coordinate a holistic response to a student’s particular situation.

Student Inclusion and Diversity Manager Penny Huisman emphasised the importance of putting a ‘student’s first’ lens on everything they do.

“The Student Care and Reporting Network really allows us to join the dots in a way we’ve not done before now, and makes the whole process around reporting issues and asking for help or guidance more streamlined,” she explained.

“Advocate also enables us to respond to a students’ needs in a much more effective way because working together we have more information about the student to work with.”

There are three core student support streams within the Advocate Network. Any student-related concerns, complaints, issues and requests for support should now be logged via Advocate rather than any other University support channels.

The three streams are:

1. Wellbeing MQ: For students who are concerned about their physical or mental wellbeing and for staff or members of the public who may have concerns about a student’s physical or mental wellbeing.
2. Safety and Behaviour:For students, staff or members of the public to report safety issues and inappropriate behaviours such as bullying, harassment, racism, sexual harassment and sexual assault, and stalking.
3. Feedback and Misconduct: For students, staff, or members of the public to provide feedback, make student-related complaints and report misconduct (including academic misconduct).

If a student or staff member isn’t sure if they should log a report through the Advocate system, the Student Care and Reporting Network are giving the clear advice to ‘just report it’.

Staff will contact you to discuss what kind of support might be appropriate, given the situation. If it seems like one team in the Network is best placed to offer the response needed, then the report will be handled by that team.

“You never know whether another concern has been raised about that particular student in another area of the Network team, which could mean we need to take a closer look at the best way to support them,” Penny says.

“Perhaps the report you make is one of many similar reports and allows us to spot emerging situations and intervene before things get worse. So, if you’re in doubt, just report it and we’ll sort it”.

More details about Advocate can be found on the student care and reporting page, including who can submit student care reports, what can be reported and what happens when a report is submitted.