Student Support

The Office of Biomedical Education offers a variety of resources and support for our graduate students. This includes Orientation 2.0, a series of presentations and workshops to help students with career and personal development. We also manage our Graduate Student Ambassador program, which consists of Masters and PhD students who help recruit new students, and mentor current students.

These activities are key to the professional development of Jacobs School trainees – as important as their scientific training.  Faculty mentors and basic science departments are expected to support trainee participation.

The Students of Concern Team seeks to proactively identify, assess and offer a coordinated institutional response to situations with the potential to negatively impact the health, safety and success of the University at Buffalo community members.

Accessibility Resources coordinates reasonable accommodations for equitable access to UB for students with disabilities.

As faculty and staff of the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, we have a commitment to providing our students with the resources necessary to be healthy and successful. 

Student Health Services can help with many non-emergency medical concerns, including proactive care (annual exams, well visits and screenings), as well as care for injuries and illnesses (including chronic illness management). For health care services that are not provided directly by Student Health Services, we can help find other health care providers who may be able to take care of you.

Counseling Services promotes the personal well-being and academic success of students by providing brief mental health services, educational programs, crisis intervention, and campus community consultation.

Blue Table is a food pantry for UB students who do not have access to food as a result of an emergency. The program is available to off-set unanticipated hardship and short-term food insecurity and is not meant to replace a meal plan or be a means of consistent grocery access.

If a PhD Student in a Jacobs School PhD program finds themselves in an environment not conducive to their matriculation, that student may petition for a change of laboratory. Read the policy

Ideally, the student will find a new lab in their existing department or program.  When that is not possible and the change of mentor also entails a change of degree program, the new program’s administrator must work with the student and OBE to initiate a new Slate application. A new admission offer is needed to update the student’s PhD degree program in HUB.  International students will also need a new I-20. 

No matter the situation, the goal during the lab rotation period is to maintain continuity of funding for the student.