Students have been left to depend on a student support team based a mile away from their building as the university continues to centralise its facilities as part of their new Hyb scheme, in a bid to cut costs.

The School of Journalism, Media and Culture (JOMEC) previously had a dedicated student support team inside the Central Square Hyb, but after the reforms, it has been reduced to a front desk with minimal staffing.

Instead, the old support team have been merged with the John Percival Hyb, which is based in a building in Cathays over a half hour walk away from the School of Journalism, Media and Culture in the City Centre.

For JOMEC students to access support online, they must now email the team in the John Percival Hyb, who must now juggle supporting both JOMEC students, and those within the School of Global Humanities.

Students were not consulted about the changes, with the only noticeable change being the change of email address to contact the Central Square Hyb on the student intranet and in uploaded lecture slides at the start of the academic year.

Speaking to an anonymous staff source about the changes, they described the situation as the university’s “centralisation f*** up”.

Another source explained that staff were being rotated between the Central Square Hyb and John Percival Hyb with only one person available at most times for support in JOMEC, compared to a previous team with multiple people on hand.

Feedback gathered by Cardiff Students’ Union last academic year found that many students “remain unclear about what a Hyb is”, with little understanding of how they differ from the previous support systems.

The Hyb model was brought in as a move by the university to centralise administration and support services, marketed as locations which provide “redeveloped study space” and “in-person support” for students.

A freedom of information request revealed that the university had spent over £419,000 on “targeted support” from consultants to design the Hyb system.

Gair Rhydd approached Cardiff University for comment but, at the time of publishing, none was provided.