Role of Personal Tutors in the UK Higher Education

Students in the UK often run on a tight schedule, which involves juggling jobs and studies. A little push is something that everyone needs in their life. This is where personal tutors come in. Personal tutors guide students through their studies in a significantly different manner from their subject professors.

Personal tutors clear up the complexities of the concepts that sometimes arise during the lectures and are left unsolved. They provide more than education, since they are mostly closer in age, students are able to discuss their personal life experiences with them. They listen, mentor, and connect with their students on an emotional as well as an academic level.

Academic Support

Personal tutors help students navigate their way through the academic journey. They are always present there to offer:

• Guidance on course choices and module selection.
• Understanding the assessment criteria and university expectations.
• Identify what are the strong and weak points of education for students.
• They provide their students with time management strategies and study techniques.

Personal tutors frequently use online support services like assignment help UK to provide their students with a better idea of what topic to choose for their assignments and how to define these ideas in a professional way.

Monitoring Support

Personal tutors are like off-campus supervisors; they keep an eye on the academic record and performance of their students by:

• Tracking their progress, attendance, and engagement in the courses and modules.
• Checking for any warning signs to flag and intervene if any academic issue arises.
• Discussing goals and providing feedback on the assignments motivates students to set goals and improvement strategies.

Personal tutors are hired to evaluate the progress of the student and guide them accordingly to their skill set. The personal help and supervision over studies and the academic goals can help set up the standard for oneself as well.

Pastoral Support

Even though personal tutors are not the caretakers, since they listen to the students’ needs, they provide students with pastoral support through:

• Providing personal space to talk about their emotional, social, and financial challenges.
• Helping students go through the issue of homesickness and teaching them how to manage stress.
• Signposting their students to special services such as mental health counselling, disability support, or hardship funding.

Personal tutors make their students feel emotionally connected with them, so they can ask whatever questions and say whatever is on their mind. They make their students so comfortable that they often have to deal with them asking, “Can you write my assignment for me?”

Sense of Belonging and Moral Support

Students, especially international, first-year, and from minority backgrounds, may often feel isolated in the university; having someone who listens to their problems, teaches and encourages them can help such students feel more connected and having some person to belong to.

• They provide their student a sense of being known and supported as an individual, which gives their students confidence.
• Their constant tracking of students’ interests and academic journey gives the students that there is someone who cares about them, and this connects them emotionally to their tutors.
• When students face an issue, such as academic failure, financial problems, or any mental health disruption, tutors are mostly the first ones to know about it, giving their students the idea that they are always there to lean on.

Personal tutors provide a sense of belonging during the intense feeling of being an outsider. They are the first ones who make students welcome at the university since they are the only ones that a student sees on their daily basis.

University Navigation Support

Personal tutors are experienced, and most of the time, they are students themselves. They help their students to navigate and settle in the university by:

• Helping them understand the system and the ways of universities, telling them how they can appeal or complain about anything if they want.
• Telling them about the academic regulations of the university and what will be expected of them as students there.
• Helping the new students in the transition period, by supervising through the filling of forms and other admission steps.

For students, personal tutors are the consistent point of contact and support throughout their academic journey. They keep their students updated with the new ways of technological learning and prepare them for exams by using online exam help sites to test their understanding of concepts properly.

Professional Developmental Support

A person who has been teaching a student a whole term, tracking the record of their grades, academic performance, and their mental engagement, it is hard for such a person not to show any concern about the result and future of their students.

• Many tutors even give guidance on how to grow professionally and move forward to achieve one’s career ambitions, by discussing placement options and building CVs.
• Since they are very well aware of the weaknesses and strengths of a students, they provide them a perfectly tailored advice according to their skill set.
• Sometimes tutors go out of their way and write references and recommendation letters to help connect students to networking events.

Not to forget, the one thing that is much needed for a degree in the UK is a complete and thoroughly researched and detailed dissertation. Personal tutors are very well aware of this fact and help their students write the professional dissertation, sometimes seeking support from online services like dissertation help UK.

Challenges in Tutoring Support

Not every student loves the idea of having a personal tutor. For students, it can turn out to be a complete disaster. Some of the reported challenges that students have faced with the personal tuition are as follows:

• Students are often frustrated with the uneven experiences. The quality of the tuition varies upon the commitment and working style of the tutor. Where some students report helpful meetings with tutors, some are not even able to see them whole day.
• Many tutors take care of multiple students at a time, making it hard for them to offer personalised attention to everyone.
• Not all tutors provide pastoral care, thinking that’s not part of their job, and they don’t need to take on the extra work.

Although personal tutors can be more than just academic supporters, some students are unable to experience the same thing.

Final Thoughts on Personal Tutor Support

Even if it can’t be the same for everyone, it still promises student support in every aspect of university, which is very much needed for all students. There should be more tutors who not only guide the students academically, but also in their professional journey as well.

University has the potential to bring even a hard soul to its breaking point, having someone there to guide and advise provides a sense of belonging and support. So, for the sake of a bright future and the well-being of students, there is a need for more personal tutors in higher education in the UK.