Personal Tutors.

quarterly journalhe focus volume 6p2-3: Research by Reading and OxfordBrookes Universities.p4: Liverpool Guild of Students PersonalTutoring Campaignp5: University of Central Lancashire Students’Unions ‘I love my personal tutor’ Campaignp6-7: NUS Charter on Personal Tutoringp8: Liz Thomas, Higher Education AcademyPersonal tutoring is seen by manystudents as a vital lifeline to theiracademic progress. Unfortunatelybecause of budget cuts and timeconstraints, the quality of personaltutoring in higher education hasdeteriorated. The National StudentSurvey shows that only 70% ofstudents were satisfied that they hadgood advice when it came to makingstudy choices and 74% satisfied thatthey were given sufficient academicsupport. This HE Focus aims toinspire policy changes in institutionsand remind us all why personaltutoring is so important to today'sstudent.We often hear that the impact ofThe Browne Review will changethe disposition of students in manyways. Students may only studycourses because of their financialbenefit later on in life, students maythink of themselves as consumersand institutions may turn moreinto businesses than educationalestablishments. Although I wouldwholeheartedly disagree with all ofthese assertions, there is a placein this debate to talk about howinstitutions need to personalise theHE experience for students. Having agreat personal tutor system will helpto alleviate some of the big studentworries such as “shouldn't I have morecontact hours?” or “I want to feel like apart of a learning community and notjust another number”.Studies have shown that as well ashelping to improve the morale ofstudents, personal tutors are alsocost effective. A study by The OpenUniversity found that their retentionrates increased by 5% when personaltutors were reintroduced. Whenyou look at on average how muchadditional income an institution willreceive from continuing students, plusthe savings in recruitment and thegrant from HEFCE for students whosuccessfully complete, this yieldedthem a 550% return in their investmentin personal tutors. 1 We have all heardthat one of the greatest reasons whystudents drop out is because theyfelt like they had no one to talk towhen they fell into difficulty. A goodpersonal tutoring system will ensurethat foundations are laid early for agood relationship to develop betweentutor and tutee so that if for any reasona problem did occur early on, therewould be someone for the student totalk to who they trust.NUS has developed a charter ongood practice in personal tutoringsystems which can be found onpages 6 and 7 of this HE Focus.Please take a look at our definingprinciples, which were created aftermuch research and consultation withstudents and the wider sector.If we can get personal tutoring rightin Higher Education, students will feelmore supported, more cared for andultimately more satisfied with theirexperience.In UnityUsman AliVice President(Higher Education), NUS1Hixenbaugh, Paula, and Liz Thomas. Personal Tutoring in Higher Education. Trentham, 2006 p33-43.

At Liverpool Guild of Students, we havejust established a policy, in conjunctionwith the University of Liverpool, todramatically improve personal tuition forstudents and for academics. We knowthat Personal Tutoring can enhance everyaspect of university life and help theeducational experience, or hinder it.Feedback from students informedresearch conducted by the EducationalDevelopment division in the Universitysuggests that the role of personal tutorshas become inconsistent and oftenmisunderstood. While there are manyexamples of personal tutors working well,we have also heard a large number ofcomplaints. The most common being: alack of contact, unclear and contradictingadvice on various pastoral matters andtutors not being sufficiently trained andprepared for the role - resulting in undersupportedstudents.It is our belief that the role of academicand pastoral tutor be split, so thatacademics can provide more disciplinebasedsupport and an overview of astudent’s academic performance, whilstbeing supported locally by trainedpastoral tutors.We believe that this will result in better,more targeted support for students,more coherent and skill-specific rolesfor staff, and importantly a sustainablestandard of pastoral support that manyof our students require and many of ouracademics are not necessarily able toprovide.The University are now trialling thissystem in two of the three faculties, witha view to fully rolling out the policy in thenext academic year. An important factorin the development of this now joint policywas the close working relationship withEducational Development coupled withfull engagement with the University’sstrategic planning and review, wherebywe could demonstrate how the Universitycould use our proposals to achieve itsaims within the Student Experience strandof its work.This relationship has meant that we canbring together a number of policies whichcompliment each other – so, combiningour personal tuition policy with the othermain policy on exam feedback meansthat the new academic tutors can supportthe required option to provide examfeedback on request, essentially tradingthe pastoral role for enhanced feedback.The Student Experience Awards(SEA) at UCLan Students’ Union havebeen developed this year followingthe success of last year’s Lecturerof the Year award and the I Love MyPersonal Tutor campaign. Followinga campaign in semester one whereI collected the views of over 700students on the current personaltutor system, and what studentswould see as an ideal personal tutor,I then collated and analysed thisdata, looked at the NSS data andcomment boxes and presented myfindings and recommendations tothe University’s Senior ManagementTeam, including the Vice Chancellor.They were very supportive of my initialrecommendations and agreed to dowhat they can to put them into place.I have decided to do some moreresearch with the potential tomake some more challengingrecommendations, so have sent ananonymous survey out to academicstaff to gather their honest opinions.I thought another great way to getstudent feedback would be to find outwhat good practise is already goingon around the university, and whatqualities make a student value theirpersonal tutor.Including a personal tutoring awardin the SEA’s means that with thenominations that come in there willbe some good reasons why studentsvalue their personal tutor and why theythink they should be up for an award.I plan to use this feedback, coupledwith the information and researchfrom my semester one campaign todesign one or more workshops foracademic staff, which will be deliveredby me as the Education Officer. Initialdata from the staff survey shows thataround 70% of academic staff thathave answered the survey would liketo attend a training session by theStudents’ Union.In terms of the SEA’s, nominationsclose 16th March and shortlistingwill take place shortly after that. Theshortlist will be released to staff andstudents, and I will then be looking atgathering a student panel to judge thewinners, followed by the ceremonywhich is taking place on the 31stMarch. University SMT are behindthe awards and heads of schoolshelped me to promote the awards byencouraging staff to ask students tovote.I decided to run the awards tocelebrate the good things that goon around the university instead offocusing too much on negatives. Thefantastic response we have had fromthe students prove they recogniseand want to reward good practise inpersonal tutoring, support servicesand also their lecturers.Sam Sandilands – Education Officer,UCLan Students’ UnionFor more information on running teaching awards please go to: http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/campaigns/highereducation/learning-and-teaching-hub/staffawards/

Charter on...This tutor should be a member of academic staffwithin their subject discipline. If a member of staffleaves, students should automatically be assigned anew tutor and students should also have the right tochange their personal tutor. Postgraduate taught anddistance learning students should also be allocateda personal tutor in the same way.Every institution has a different model of personal tutoringand there is often variation in how personal tutoring isdelivered in different subject disciplines. It is importantthat students get a comparable experience across thewhole institution so that they feel part of the samelearning community but without limiting schools andfaculties creativity in exceeding the minimumrequirements. These standards should be published sothat both staff and students understand the minimumexpectations, what the purpose of tutoring is and areaccountable to the minimum requirements.We know from the National Student Survey thatstudents are very dissatisfied with the feedback theyget on their work. This is for a number of reasonsincluding students often finding it difficult to translatethe feedback into meaningful actions to take forward.Personal tutors have the capabilities of being able tohelp students navigate through the feedback theyreceive and can work with them to produce academicdevelopment plans which could help to improvestudent attainment.It is important for both the tutor and tutee toautomatically check in with each other once perterm to ensure that everything is ok with thestudents’ studies and personal circumstances.Making these meetings regular and timetabled willhelp both tutor and tutee to build a rapport with eachother to ensure students have someone who theyknow and trust to talk with if they get into difficulty.These should be structured meetings and link withthe institution’s induction.Students need to know outside of any requiredmeetings per term how best to speak with their tutorboth quickly and efficiently and this should beestablished in the first meeting of the year. Staff andstudents should set clear boundaries and encouragecommunication though a mutually preferred methodsuch as email or published open office hours.Teaching and learning is often seen as secondary occupation toresearch within reward and recognition schemes in institutions.Good quality teaching, including personal tutoring is vital to studentprogression and should be given the same emphasis in staff rewardand recognition as research currently does.Staff should have access to as much information aspossible in order for them to undertake the role of apersonal tutor most effectively. Ensuring studentfeedback is available electronically as well as dataon student attainment is really useful for a tutor tohave a coherent picture of how their tutee isprogressing. Technology can also be used toenhance the communication methods used by bothtutors and tutees to make the process moreaccessible.% of students satisfied100806040200National Student Survey 2010AcademicsupportI have receivedsufficient adviceand support withmy studiesI have beenable tocontact staffwhen Ineeded toPersonal tutors should be specifically trained in how to recognise studentswho are at risk of withdrawing as well as spotting mental health problemsand understanding a mix of cultural backgrounds prevalent within theinstitution. An effective personal tutor should know where to signpoststudents and be given training on key attributes such as being a goodcommunicator. Staff should also have access to a network to share theirexperiences of being a tutor and talk through issues which may havearisen from student consultations.There are many reasons why students go to university and many types ofstudents within them such as part time, mature, postgraduate etc. Institutionsshould make clear the purpose of their personal tutoring programme but enabletutors to tailor the personal tutoring programme for students with different needsto the traditional undergraduate student.Personal tutoring should not just be about giving students the opportunity to talk ifthey have a problem, but to encourage them to develop their academic andprofessional skills. Often students do not have the oversight of their progression tounderstand what skills they need to develop in order to improve their academicperformance, or a good understanding of where their degree can take them in thefuture. Using personal tutor sessions as a development tool is a far more rewardingexperience for students and makes the process more meaningful for them. This doesnot mean that both academic and personal development must be delivered by thesame personal tutor, but there should be a coherent strategy in place to ensurestudents are given personal support in both areas and these are joined up.Good advicewas availablewhen Ineeded tomake studychoices100%80%60%40%20%0%Number of hours per weekspent with a personal tutorWhat studentscurrently receiveWhat studentswant to receive0 hours 1 hour 2 hours 3+ hoursTaken from 2010 NUS/HSBC Student Experience Report

Liz Thomas – Senior Adviser, Higher Education Academy; LeadAdviser, Action on Access; Director of the Widening ParticipationResearch Centre, Edge Hill University; Director of the What works?Student retention and success programmeLiz.Thomas@heacademy.ac.ukHow do you improve studentretention and success?During the 2000’s a significant number ofhigher education institutions abandonedtheir personal tutoring systems, largelydue to increases in student numbers andthe costs associated with delivering oneto-onepersonal tutoring (Thomas andHixenbaugh, 2006). Increasingly howeverHEIs are recognizing that personaltutoring enhances students’ learningexperience and improves retention,progression and success (Thomas et al2010).Personal tutoring provides an idealvehicle for students to interact on aone-to-one or small group basis withacademic members of staff to increasetheir confidence, knowledge and skills,and crucially to develop a relationshipwith a member of staff. Small grouptutoring can also encourage students tocreate a study group and a network offriends. In summary, personal tutoringcan be seen to fulfil a number of roles forstudents:• Information about higher educationprocesses, procedures andexpectations;• Identify and work with students at riskof withdrawing;• Academic feedback and development;• Personal welfare support and/or referralto further information and support;• Develop a relationship with staff andstudents;• Integrate students into the wider HEexperience; and• Overall nurture a sense of confidenceand belonging.These functions are crucial as studentsmake the transition into higher education,which is problematic for many studentsespecially those who have little or nofamily experience of higher education(Quinn et al 2005). Student engagementand belonging is central to studentretention and success.Cost benefit analysis: In the full articleI show I have calculated the cost of apersonal tutoring programme, and howthis relates to income lost when a studentwithdraws within their first year of study.Personal tutoring programme:I am assuming that each student seesa personal tutor nine times a year(approximately once a month during theacademic year, or three times a term). Iam also assuming that students seetutors in groups of four, and that the tutorspends two hours preparing for every onehour of tutorial time. The cost per studentof this scheme is £220.87 per year, or£662.61 over three years.Student income: In England, eachstudent over the course of a three-yearprogramme will bring a minimum incometo the institution of £17,784. This willincrease if they are studying a coursewhich attracts a higher payment fromthe funding council, or if they live inaccommodation owned by the HEI.£662.61 is 3.7% of the income a studentbrings into HE. For every one student thatis prevented from leaving HE in the firstyear, personal tutoring can be providedfor nearly 78 students for one year, or 27students for three years. This implies thatonly in institutions where fewer than 4% ofstudents withdraw that it mightnot be economically viableto invest in personal tutoring.Furthermore, research in theSchool of Life Sciences atOxford Brookes Universityhas demonstrated that apersonal tutoring programmehas increased retention by10 percentage points from83% to 93% (University ofReading and Oxford BrookesUniversity, 2010).So, in truth, can you affordnot to have an effectivepersonal tutoring system?ReferencesHEFCE, available from http://www.hefce.ac.uk/Pubs/hefce/2010/10_24/Quinn, J., Thomas, L., Slack, K., Casey,L., Thexton, W. & Noble, J. (2005) FromLife Crisis to Lifelong Learning: RethinkingWorking-class 'Drop-out' from HigherEducation. York: Joseph RowntreeFoundation.Thomas, L. and Hixenbaugh, P. (eds)(2006) Personal Tutoring in HigherEducation. Stoke on Trent: TrenthamBooksThomas, L., Storan, J., Wylie, V., Berzins,K., Harley, P, Linley, R. and Rawson, A.(2010) Review of widening participationstrategic assessments 2009. Ormskirk:Action on Access, available from http://www.actiononaccess.org/index.php?p=19_4University of Reading and OxfordBrookes University (2010) ‘Top tip: Buildrelationships to ease students’ transitioninto university and enhance their senseof belonging’ in Retention GrantsProgramme Briefing Number 4 (July 2010).Ormskirk: Action on Access available fromhttp://www.actiononaccess.org/index.php?p=11_3_1To download an extended version of this article please go to: http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/campaigns/highereducation/learning-and-teaching-hub/personaltutors/