When students put out a distress signal, or just need a bit of day to day help and advice, college counsellors are often their first port of call.

THE rows of leaflets in the Student Centre are a good clue. Surviving Away From Home, Healthy Eating on a Budget, Minor Illnesses: How To Look After Yourself and Beat Exam Stress are just some of the many and varied titles - including Studying While Seeking Asylum - which are an indication of a modern university such as Teesside trying to look after its students.

All over the country, thousands of students are leaving home for the first time and sitting all alone in a strange town in their halls of residence, surrounded by strangers. Technically, legally, they are adults. But we all know how adult some 18-year-olds can be...

Parents, don't panic. They will be fine. The good news is that there is masses of help to ensure that students settle down, cope with the work and enjoy themselves.

"Universities have changed so much in a generation, " says Genevieve Kerr, student counsellor at the University of Teesside. "When there was only a small number of students they would have a personal tutor who would help them with work and with any other problems, but those days are gone. We have 22,000 students at Teesside now, including part-timers. That's the size of a small town. Tutors have more students, more responsibilities, more teaching, less time. So we have to do more to help, and the result is a much wider network of care."

Genevieve knows the problems from all sides, as student, teacher and mother. "When my oldest daughter left home for her gap year, I knew she was going to a good place and that she would be quite safe,. But every time I went into her bedroom, my eyes filled...so yes, I know how mothers worry."

Genevieve is French and lectured in French at the university until six years ago when she had the chance to change careers. "I had always had a great interest in counselling, and in psychotherapy so I retrained but stayed with the students because I enjoyed that."

Although Genevieve studied in France, her university experiences are typical of an earlier generation. "We had a good time at university and when we left, we owed nobody any money and we knew there would be jobs for us. There wasn't pressure.

"Today's students aren't as carefree. To pay the fees and to live they must take on a debt like a small mortgage. More than half the students here have part-time jobs as well as their studies, which gives them real problems of time management. Mature students often have family responsibilities too. Then at the end of it there's not the same certainty of making it into a good job. Their lives are much more risky than ours were."

Hence the reasons for the support system.

"Everyone has such an idea of the fun student life and it is there certainly, but not straightaway. In the first few weeks, especially, many students can be fooled into thinking that everyone else is enjoying themselves and having a great life, that they are the only one who is feeling lonely. If only they knew that everyone else was feeling exactly the same, they would soon feel happier."

With so many people from so many different backgrounds and ages _ Teesside has a high proportion of mature students and part-timers - it's a rich and varied community. "Each person brings their own background with them, all individual."

The Student Centre's first job is to tell students they exist and that there is help on offer. The university offers plenty of practical advice and help with accommodation, finance and has a drop-in centre to help with study skills and essay writing.

"Parents worry, I know, that their children are away from home and they can't be with them to protect them. But they are young adults. They are ready to learn how to be independent. They need to stretch themselves, to grow up."

Her guidelines are simple.

"Keep healthy. It's very hard to be happy if you're not well. And make an effort to meet people. We have all sorts of societies here, all the ones you would expect plus more unusual ones such as the Pagan Society or the Coffee Society. There must be something to appeal. They are just a way of getting to know people."

She also encourages students to take up some sport or exercise.

"We have fantastic facilities. And all these extra activities are a side route into working better. They build confidence, make students feel better and that all helps with the academic side too."

For a few, thankfully a very small number, even all this help and encouragement isn't quite enough. There are more clues in Genevieve's room - not least the big box of tissues on the table.

Counselling, almost unheard of a generation ago, is now an important part of student support.

"Some people, of course, already have problems with mental or physical health before they arrive. We usually know about them from their UCAS forms and are prepared for them. But if other students need help, we try and make it as easy as possible for them to get it. Teaching staff are encouraged to recognise problems as soon as they develop - an important part of our work is to provide information for staff on how to spot signs of stress and how they can support students - and we try and make help accessible and quick.

"The huge majority of students, of course, never need it and many students who come for counselling often just need one or two sessions, They just want to make sense of it. Get things in perspective perhaps."

Some students, for a variety of reasons, find that university is not for them after all and leave.

"I don't think that's in any way a failure," says Genevieve robustly.

"You don't know what it's like until you've tried it. We must give people the chance to find out and if students having tried it, then decide that university is not what they want, then it's a sensible and mature decision to leave.

But most students come to university, enjoy themselves, work hard and get their qualifications. "Our role is to help them," says Genevieve.

"It's good to see them over the years, learning, stretching themselves, growing up. It's a great experience."