PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY: PERSONAL TUTORING
2014-15
I am writing to you about this session’s arrangements for personal tutoring.
I include two items which you should familiarise yourself with: list of personal tutors and tutees for this coming session (this may be adjusted
later, and let me know if anything is amiss)
 a summary of the scheduling of meetings with personal tutees
UCL specifies minimum requirements for personal tutoring activities conducted in
academic departments, including the number of formal meetings with personal tutees
in each year of study. For first-year students, there needs to be five of these
timetabled (at least 3 of which are individual face-to-face) and in each of the following
years we are required to hold three formal meetings with tutees.
The online Personal Tutors handbook, along with a wealth of other information and
support, may be accessed here, at the Personal Tutors’ Portal:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/personaltutors/. It is well worth acquainting yourself with this
site.
An important aspect of the role of the Personal Tutor is to steer the student in the
direction of enhancing their Personal and Professional Development, or PPD - see
the web site http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ppd/personal_tutors for more information.
If there are any issues with a student that you think may need further attention,
please contact the Programme Tutor (s.zochowski@ucl.ac.uk).
It is the responsibility of the tutor to ensure that contact is attempted. To
record that a meeting with a student took place, please enter the date you saw them
as “dd/mm/yyyy” in the Personal Tutor Attendance Record for 2014-15, which is at
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pquwztRLmoDvx7VZwVgQKFUVAiEpuaFB3iNq5YO0Mw/edit?usp=sharing
FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS
The First meeting between personal tutors and tutees should be held on Tuesday
30 September, in the afternoon.. If there is a good reason why you cannot meet them
on that date, please arrange another convenient time with your tutees. In that first
meeting you should welcome students to UCL and tell them a little about how we
operate as a department – if you know! You might also want to discuss the following
with them: Academic attendance
 Accommodation
 Finance/Paid work
 Time management
Please make an entry in the Personal Tutor Attendance Record to
indicate which tutees you were able to meet, and when.
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The Second meeting with your first-year personal tutees should be scheduled for
Reading Week (week 11) on Tuesday 4 November. Students should be asked to
complete an online PPD Profile before they attend that meeting and to bring a hard
copy along for discussion. In that meeting you can see the students as a group and
have them identify common weakness in their abilities and have them suggest ways
in which they can work to improve their expertise in particular areas. The tutor should
act to facilitate discussion but the discussions themselves should be student led. I
suggest that the meeting should take 30 minutes. The students should retain a copy
of their personal skills profile but also leave a copy with you. These profiles will be
revisited in second term.
Please make an entry in the Personal Tutor Attendance Record to
indicate which tutees you were able to meet, and when.
The Third meeting with your personal tutees should be scheduled on Wednesday
14 January 2015 (afternoon). Please speak to each student individually. This
meeting could be used to review the first term, and discuss any “resolutions” for the
second term.
Please make an entry in the Personal Tutor Attendance Record to
indicate which tutees you were able to meet, and when.
The Fourth meeting with your personal tutees should be scheduled for Reading
Week on Tuesday 17 February. Students will be asked to update their Key Skills
Profile before they attend that meeting and to bring it along for discussion. In that
meeting you can see the students as a group and review how they have improved
their skills over the previous 3 months, and identify areas that they still need to work
on. Again the role of the personal tutor is to facilitate these discussions and the
meeting should take no more than 30 minutes. The students should retain a copy of
their personal skills profile but also leave a copy with you.
Please make an entry in the Personal Tutor Attendance Record to
indicate which tutees you were able to meet, and when.
The Fifth meeting with your first-year personal tutees should be scheduled for the
final week of second term, on Wednesday 18 March (afternoon). You should speak
to each student individually about their exam preparation and any problems that they
may be having. If there are problems please make sure that we are aware of these.
Please make an entry in the Personal Tutor Attendance Record to
indicate which tutees you were able to meet, and when.
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OTHER YEARS
It is now a requirement that students in years 2, 3 and 4 see their personal
tutors at least three times a year.
There should be a meeting between tutors and their personal tutees early in the
session to review examination performances and to discuss prospects for the new
session. The first should be scheduled for Wednesday 1 October. The students will
be told to come to see you, but if you cannot see them at that time, arrange an
alternative one. Again you might discuss:



Academic attendance
Accommodation
Finance/Paid work
Time Management
Students who have already started to develop a PPD Profile last year should be
encouraged to continue to use the electronic key skills record to document their
development of these skills. Otherwise, they should begin their profile, as outlined on
the web page http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ppd/.
The second and third scheduled meetings should take place as outlined in the
summary on the next page.
Please make an entry in the Personal Tutor Attendance Record to
indicate which tutees you were able to meet, and when.
Thanks for your cooperation, and please contact me (s.zochowski@ucl.ac.uk) if you
have any questions about the Personal Tutoring programme.
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Summary of Suggested Personal Tutor Meetings
2014-15
1st Year
Meeting 1: Tuesday 30 September, afternoon
Meeting 2: Tuesday 4 November
Meeting 3: Wednesday 14 January, afternoon
Meeting 4: Tuesday 17 February
Meeting 5: Wednesday 25 March, afternoon
2nd Year
Meeting 1: Wednesday 1 October, afternoon
Meeting 2: Monday 3 November or Tuesday 4 November
Meeting 3: Tuesday 17 February
3rd Year
Meeting 1: Wednesday 1 October, afternoon
Meeting 2: Wednesday 12 November, afternoon
Meeting 3: Wednesday 25 February, afternoon
4th Year
Meeting 1: Wednesday 1 October, afternoon
Meeting 2: Wednesday 12 November, afternoon
Meeting 3: Wednesday 25 February, afternoon
Please contact the students (emails given on listing) and set up the meetings as
appropriate. If the suggested dates cannot be accommodated, set something up
which is mutually acceptable, as close to the suggested dates as possible. The
students will also be asked to make contact with their tutors, but it is the
responsibility of the tutor to ensure that contact is attempted first.
At the end of each meeting please report on the students’ attendance at the personal
tutor meetings as this is an important part of the ‘attendance monitoring’ procedures
that UCL now requires all academic departments to carry out, and is necessary for
UCL to retain its ‘highly trusted sponsor’ status with the UK Border Authority.
If a meeting is not recorded within two weeks of the suggested date, a reminder may
be sent to both the student and tutor.
Of course, meetings between tutor and student can take place at any time outside of
these scheduled sessions, if necessary!
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