Up Close and Personal: The
policy and practice of support
for the individual student
Jenny Kean

I’m really depressed. I can’t sleep, then I
can’t get up to face the world. It’s all
getting out of control.

I’ve got problems going on at home – my
parents are splitting up and my dad’s got
serious health issues.

My grand-dad’s paying for me to be here –
but I just don’t want to be doing this. It’s
going to break his heart if I go - but I don’t
want to stay. How can I tell my family?

I have to travel to Sheffield 3 days a week
for work – is there any way I can access
some kind of hardship fund?

I’m suffering quite badly from anxiety.
Should I go to the doctors?

I don’t get on with my flatmates at all. I
just can’t seem to make friends

I’ve wanted to come to university since I
was 11 years old. It was my dream – but
I’m just not enjoying it.

I’m not learning anything – what am I
getting for my money?
The context
Thomas & Hixenbaugh (2006 p.3)
 Increasing student numbers
 Worsening staff/student ratios - staff
to student ratio at University of
Hertfordshire Business School went
from 25:1 to 35:1 in 6 years to 2006
(Bunce 2006)
The context (contd)
 Greater student diversity – Owen
(2002)
 Competing demands on staff
(learning & teaching, research,
admin)
 Pressure to ensure high rates of
student retention and success
Bunce, S (2007)
Does personal tutoring matter?
 Student satisfaction and success
(Thomas & Hixenbaugh 2006, Race 2010, Neville 2007
p.138)
 Retention – “to increase retention you
must personalise your relationship with
your students” (Chapman 2003, Neville 2007
p.12)
 Follow the money -“It’s cheaper to
retain than to recruit”; the student not
just as “consumer” but “investor”
(Thomas & Hixenbaugh 2006 )
Does personal tutoring matter?
 We’ve said it does. Although…
 “This is usually work that goes on
literally and metaphorically behind
closed doors and without accolades.”
 How much do we really value it?
Neville 2007 p.3
What the students want
 Regular, frequent, scheduled
meetings
 A PT who takes an active role
throughout their degree
 A PT who is accessible, approachable
and reliable
 A PT who is enthusiastic and cares
about them
 They want to be “known, ‘tracked’
and supported” throughout
Owen 2002, Thomas & Hixenbaugh 2006
“Only Connect”
E.M. Forster

“It is becoming clear that relationships are
at the heart of the issue of the students’
experience of university.”
Thomas & Hixenbaugh 2006 p.55
What personal tutors say

I’m looking after all these students –
but who’s looking after me?

The cling-on effect

I wouldn’t give it up. [It’s] one part of the job
where it is possible to make a difference to
someone.
Thomas & Hixenbaugh 2006
The Pastoral model
Earwaker 1992
May be reactive or proactive
 Are regular meetings structured in?
 Is the role of the personal tutor clearly
defined to both the tutor and student?
 “Niche” time


“In the mass university, the ideal [of the
caring, committed pastoral tutor] works
only at a huge cost in terms of peoplehours and stress.” (Owen 2002)
The Professional model
Based on providing ‘professional’ support
services
 Different models – one-stop shop, Student
Support and Guidance (including Academic
Advisers)
 Available when students need it
 Highly reactive
 No consistency, no relationship
 Teaching staff ‘pass the buck’

Thomas & Hixenbaugh 2006, Bunce 2007
The curriculum model
Module with personal tutor group
Learning skills, info about institution and HE
generally
 Allows relationships to develop between
student and PT, but also amongst peers
 Makes it a positive developmental
experience, rather than just being about
‘problems’
 Takes time out of the curriculum
 Students don’t readily buy into anything
perceived as ‘not what I’m here to do’


Bunce 2007, Thomas & Hixenbaugh 2006
My practice – what worked
Part of induction
 Scheduled meetings built in to profile
 Appointments, not fill-your-own-slot
 Referring ‘doubters’ to 2nd yr students

My practice – what didn’t work
Lack of clarity about roles and liaison with
other depts
 Lack of follow-up
 ‘Knowing, tracking, supporting’ (Owen
2002) – little or none of the 1st two
 Lack of knowledge about uni regs,
systems, other services that could help
them
 Lack of training or help in skills I might
need to help students

An action plan
Get to know SL officer and meet regularly
 Build in follow-up
 Google docs to share marks/attendance?
 Contact hours (Neville 2007 p.33)
 Mentoring
 Training/induction for new tutors
 Try a more curriculum-embedded model?

Magic wands
and
happy endings?
Leeds Met puts students at the
heart of everything we do…
Assessment, Learning & Teaching Strategy 2008-12
Leeds Metropolitan University
References
Neville, L., 2007 The Personal tutor’s handbook. Basingstoke, Palgrave
 Race, P. & LMU Teacher Fellows, 2010 Making personal tutoring work. Leeds
Met Press
 Thomas, L .& Hixenbaugh, P. (eds), 2006 Personal tutoring in higher education.
Stoke on Trent, Trentham Books
JOURNALS
 Bunce, S. (2006) ‘Establishing a student support and guidance office to replace
personal tutoring in University of Hertfordshire Business School’, The Higher
Education Academy, August
 Bunce, S. (2007) ‘Personal or Systematic? Do we have to take the ‘personal’
out of personal tutoring in HE?’, Higher Education Review 40 (1) Autumn pp
85-87
 Owen, M. (2002) ‘Sometimes you feel you’re in niche time: The personal tutor
system, a case study’, Active Learning in Higher Education, 3: 7
 Stephen, D., O’Connell, P. & Hall, M. (2008) ‘’Going the extra mile’, ‘firefighting’ or ‘laissez-faire? Re-evaluating personal tutoring relationships within
mass higher education’, Teaching in Higher Education,13 (4) August pp449-460
 Trotter, E (2004) ‘Personal Tutoring: Policy v. Reality of Practice’, Education in
Changing Environment conference, University of Salford
