Resources and Training

To support colleagues, personal and senior tutors have developed a timeline of topics which could be discussed across the student journey, from a first meeting with tutees in Stage One, to final year tutorials. These, and our guidance on inclusive one to one tutorials and inclusive group tutorials, are provided as a starting point.

Personal tutorial timeline

Topics which can be discussed at different stages in the student journey

• Undergraduate Students‌
• Postgraduate Taught Students‌

There’s no compulsion for you to make a record of your tutorials, or to use NU Reflect, but NU Reflect can be a useful way to support you and give continuity to your sessions.

NU Reflect is now integrated in Canvas and is accessible in both Account and in any Course menu. Further information on the functionality of NU Reflect and guidance documents can be found within the NU Reflect pages. NU Reflect

In the following video Sasha Gartside talks about her role as a personal tutor, which includes giving information/advice, and specific topics to discuss.

Guidance on organising and delivering inclusive one-to-one tutorials

• Inclusive one to one tutorials‌

Guidance on organising and delivering inclusive group tutorials

• Inclusive group tutorials

Within your role there may be times throughout the academic year when students contact you to discuss their individual difficulties and challenges. As their Personal Tutor you can advise them about the University's Personal Extenuating Circumstances procedure where they can request that assessment adjustments be considered to support their studies. This is called the PEC process. The personal tutoring canvas course has specific information on PEC’s and the processes you and the student need to take. Further information for students and additional guidance for tutors is available online.

Where a PEC may not adequately address an ongoing or emergency issue or health condition, a supportive Action Plan may be appropriate and can be discussed with Student Health & Wellbeing Service colleagues under the Support to Study procedure. Further information about these procedures are available within the personal tutoring course.

To support you in your role as personal tutor, there are a number of in person and on-demand courses.

Faculty Training Sessions

During September 2024 we delivered three Faculty Training Sessions for Personal Tutors. The slides and recordings from these sessions are below:

• HaSS (Chaired by Dr Sarah Graham) – Slides and Session Recording
• FMS (Chaired by Dr Emma Cockburn) – Slides recording unavailable
• SAgE (Chaired by Dr Sara Marsham) – Slides and Session Recording 

For colleagues in FMS, please view the HaSS or SAgE recording.

Mental health and awareness training for Personal Tutors

Newcastle University has developed online Mental Health and Wellbeing Awareness training and Suicide Prevention training for students and staff at all levels. Included in the 'University Essentials' suite, colleagues are encouraged to plan this training in as part of your ongoing development. The course takes about one hour to complete and can be accessed via the Learning Management System. Just click on the link and enter your usual campus username and password and you'll be taken straight through to the right place. Students can access it within Canvas.

The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust provides e-learning sessions designed for staff in university settings, with the aim of building confidence in supporting students around mental health. The sessions are specifically written for those staff who do not hold specialist roles in mental health, and who offer day-to-day support to students in a range of settings, such as personal tutors, or those working in halls of residence, cafés, security teams, careers services, libraries, etc. Each session takes around 20-minutes to complete.

Further training

If there are training topics you think would be helpful, please email these to LTDS-training@newcastle.ac.uk 

Library and academic skills support for students 

The following Library web pages provide help and support for students with information and learning resources for their subject area.

• Library resources guides
• Library subject guides

The ASK (Academic Skills Kit) website is a growing set of online resources to support students across the range of academic skills.

• Academic Skills Kit

Reasonable adjustments 

The following resources have been provided by the Student Health and Wellbeing Service (SHWS) identifying reasonable adjustments that can be made for students who have a disability, health condition or a specific learning difficulty.

Student learning difficulties

The Student Health and Wellbeing Service (SHWS) present an online session on student learning difficulties, what they are, how they can affect students, and the support that is available to help. You can also download the presentation's PowerPoint slides.

Self-assessments

The following self-assessments can be used with students as a starting point for discussion. They encourage personal reflection among students, with a view to then sharing with others.

• Graduate Framework Self-Assessment

The following FAQs were raised in the three faculty personal tutor training and awareness sessions held from 5 to 10 September 2021.

What is expected, and what do we need to consider when arranging meetings?

Q: Are personal tutor meetings compulsory?

A: The expectation approved by University Education Committee is that students will meet with their personal tutors four times during the academic year. We have not used the word compulsory, but anticipate that all students will want to meet with their personal tutor, to discuss their academic progress, and this expectation needs to be stressed to our students by our Schools. We anticipate that all new students will all want to meet with their personal tutor, without the need for their first meeting to be made compulsory, particularly if their tutor has invited them to meet.

Q: Is there a standard approach to personal tutoring?

A: No, this is for academic Schools to decide in your context. The minimum we require is four meetings, per year, which could be in groups or with individual students, and could be in person or on platforms such as Zoom or Teams. We know that in some Schools the offer is far greater than this and includes tutoring which is linked to academic modules and/or professional practice. If you have an approach in your School which works for you, and your students, and which meets our stated minimum of four meetings, please maintain your existing approach.

Q: How often are we expected to offer meetings?

A: Four times per year – at the beginning and end of the autumn and spring terms.

Q: Is there a policy on whether personal tutor meetings should be face to face or can these be on e.g. Zoom or Teams?

A: Meetings can be in person or via platforms such as Zoom/Teams. It's up to tutors to agree with your students what will work best for you and your students. Both approaches have benefits.

Q: Should my meetings be with individuals or a group?

A: Whatever works for you and your students, recognising that there are pros and cons of each approach. There is guidance on individual and group tutorials on the personal tutoring website.

Q: What should we do if we reach out to our students with an offer of a personal tutor meeting but they don’t take this up?

A: This is difficult, as we cannot force students to come and see staff and we recognise that some students don't take up the offer of a personal tutorial. So long as you have reached out to your students to meet with you at each stage of the year (twice during the autumn term, and twice in the spring term), and your tutees know that you are available to them, this is as much as you can do. The students who expressed most dissatisfaction about personal tutoring were those who reached out to their tutor and never heard back, or those who never felt they had the offer of meetings.

Q: Does an email conversation or Teams chat count as a "contact"? This can be where problems are solved.

A: We expect you to meet with your tutees face to face (either in person or on platforms such as Zoom/Teams) at least four times during the academic year. However, we do recognise that for some students an email exchange may be sufficient. We do not expect this to become the norm.

Q: Some students raise very specific issues about individual modules that might be better answered by module leads.  How best to draw this boundary?

A: We have been very clear with our students that personal tutors will not know the answers to every question, and it is worth reinforcing this in your first meeting. This means that if a tutee has questions about a particular module, you could refer students to a module lead for more specific advice. However, the questions may be more general e.g. how to swap modules, or what do I do if I am worried that I don’t understand what is required of me for a particular module. As a personal tutor, your role may be to help with academic questions, and where relevant to signpost to appropriate others.

Q: Do satisfaction scores reflect those students who do not engage with personal tutoring, and who then give a low score?

A: This is of course possible, although the open text comments showed that the greatest levels of dissatisfaction was either from students who reached out to their tutors with a question, or to set up a meeting, and didn’t hear back, or from those who never heard from their tutor to set up a meeting. The open text comments suggested that students who didn’t feel they wanted a meeting, either scored their personal tutor neutrally or positively.

Q: How will we monitor whether we are meeting our students if NU Reflect is optional?

A: We can’t. However, sufficient personal tutors raised concerns about NU Reflect for us to make this optional – on the basis that it is more important for personal tutors to meet with their tutees, than to record whether this has happened. We know that many personal tutors do use NU Reflect very effectively and would encourage them to continue. At the moment, we are using stage evaluations and NSS an indication from our students, about whether they are satisfied, or not, with personal tutoring. Of course, some students meet with their personal tutor and don’t find these meetings helpful, and this is also reflected in the scores our students give.

Q: What tools do we have at our disposal to encourage tutees attendance to tutor meeting. In my experience there are some who regularly attend and participate and some are difficult to engage.

A: There are no specific tools, beyond NU Reflect which many staff members use to arrange and monitor meetings. The main ‘tool’ you have is to explain to your tutees the purpose of personal tutoring, to support their academic progress, and to make these meetings worthwhile. There are suggested discussion topics on the personal tutoring website.

Q: How do staff find out who their Senior Tutor is?

A: If you are not sure who the Senior Tutor is for your subject area, please ask a relevant colleague. This may be the Degree Programme Director, Director of Education. Education Manager or a PS colleague in the Education Team.

Q: Can you share templates for tutorials e.g. topics to discuss, and when?

A: On the personal tutoring website we currently have suggested topics, to which we add resources that staff are willing to share. If you have resources, and are happy to share these, please email these to LTDS.

Q: How are tutee allocations currently made? For some personal tutors, the number of tutees is too high for us to provide effective support.

A: Tutor allocations are made by Schools. We are aware that current allocations vary and are seeking to address this variation in the next iteration of the Personal Tutoring Policy.

Q: What information do personal tutors have to help them understand the level of student participation within their course? Are there plans to improve this?

A: Personal Tutors can access tools such as Canvas Analytics or ask your relevant PS colleagues for attendance data. You can also access assessment marks via NU Reflect for each tutee. However, we recognise this involves several systems and bringing the relevant information together in one place is something which we believe will enhance personal tutoring. We plan to improve this as part of the next iteration of the Personal Tutoring Policy.

NU Reflect

Q: Can we continue to use NU Reflect?

A: Of course, and for many staff members and students NU Reflect works very effectively. Further information and resources can be found on the NU Reflect pages of the Learning & Teaching @ Newcastle site.

Q: If we don’t use NU Reflect, is there a requirement to keep a record of meetings and communications in some other way? Is an email record sufficient?

A: It is advisable to keep a record of every meeting with your tutees, including brief notes of the discussions and it is good practice to share these with your tutees. If you prefer to share notes via email or online platforms such as a tutee Teams channel, please use the system that works for you.

Wellbeing

Q: While the focus of personal tutoring is on academic guidance, pastoral support still seems important. How far should we go in terms of pastoral support?

A:  It’s really important that students feel supported by their tutors but it’s equally important to ensure you are working within safe boundaries. We recommend looking at the Responding to Distressed Students pages for information to help you understand your role and how to support students appropriately.

Q: If a tutor feels there is an emergency situation with a tutee e.g. mental health issues which could require immediate help (not just referral to Occupational Health), is it advisable to inform the tutee's family about the concern?

A: If a student needs immediate emergency help you should call emergency services on 999. If it is not an immediate emergency but you still have significant concerns then contact the Student Welfare Team on 83333 or by emailing wellbeingconsultancy@ncl.ac.uk. If it is outside of working hours contact security on 86817/86666. Student Health and Wellbeing will make a decision about contacting family as they may have further information about the tutee’s situation. Please do not contract a student’s family yourself without prior discussion with Student Health and Wellbeing.

Q: One of the biggest challenges we are facing as tutors are students with mental health and wellbeing issues. We often have to make a judgement call based on our limited knowledge. Our Senior Tutors have been very good at advising, but to keep their workloads manageable, it would be great for tutors to receive more guidance on how to deal with mental health issues which impact health and well-being and in extreme cases worse outcomes.

A: We would recommend that all tutors complete the LMS mental health training module.

Another helpful session is Zero Suicide Alliance - Let's Talk.

Q: I'm assuming we are not expected to provide students with our personal contact details (e.g. mobile phone numbers) other than uni email address?

A: Yes! Just give University contact email and office phone if you wish.

Q: Can personal tutors have the names of Wellbeing Officers who are linked with their School, so that they can build relationships with them?

A: When Student Wellbeing Officers are in post in a school this will be disseminated widely and building relationships with tutors will be a vital part of their role.

Q: Is our University planning on moving to an opt-out scheme for parental contact consent? Other institutions seem to moving that way.

A: This is not currently our procedure. However, all students are asked to provide emergency contact details and Student Health and Wellbeing will contact nominated contacts if that is the best and most appropriate way of safeguarding a student at a point of crisis. Student Health and Wellbeing also actively encourage contact with families, especially if the student is struggling with their wellbeing.

Q: What qualifies as 'out-of-hours' support?

A: Security operate 24/7 and will link to appropriate senior staff members as necessary depending on the situation. There are also various online platforms available to students to access 24/7.

Q: Do group meetings make it harder for students to disclose personal problems? And if so, how can tutors manage if they have a lot of tutees allocated to them?

A: Yes, group meetings can make it harder for students to disclose personal problems, so please make your tutees aware that they can come to you to discuss personal issues if they would like to.

Q: If we choose to record our meetings, what GDPR issues might this raise?

A: We would advise against recording personal tutorials for GDPR reasons. If you are considering recording your meeting please think carefully before doing so; consider the purpose of recording the tutorial and whether you are likely to actually need the recording.

Student procedures  

Q: Is self-certification for coursework only or does it include presentations and exams?

A: Self certs are only for up to a 7 day extension to an assignment submission - not exams.

Q: Can students use a self cert to miss an exam, where issues arise on date of examination?

A: No. Self certs cannot be used to defer examinations, only a short extension of up to 7 days for written assignments.

Q: Self Certs are up to 7 days, this is still up to the PEC Committee to decide the length of adjustment - is it not?

A: Self certs still need approval through the system, and can be shorter than the seven days, but may not need Committee meeting to take place. Many PEC Committees have a nominated colleague who will approve extension requests based on self certs.

Q: Is there anything in place to check the wellbeing of those students who take all four self cert PECs?

A: Colleague(s) responsible for managing PEC requests would usually be able to identify where a student is submitting multiple PECs and can alert relevant Personal Tutors/Senior Tutors/Degree Programme Directors to this. If you are concerned about a student, speak to an appropriate colleague or Chair of the PEC Committee. Think about initiating the Support to Study procedures where the students put in multiple PECs, or a serious PEC – and contact the Student Health and Wellbeing Service to discuss any students you have concerns about

Q: Do we have the capability in my workplace for senior staff to access a system which flags multiple PEC submissions?

A: PS colleagues in your Education Team can help with this information. Training is being provided for colleagues on empathetic handling of PEC and where/when to report.

Other sources of support

The following contacts will help you and your students to access Student Health and Wellbeing, and also other support teams in the University:

• Student homepage ncl.ac.uk/students
• Welcome Desk on Level Two of King's Gate

Evaluation and recommendations on personal tutoring

Q: Which NSS question or topics have informed the recent work on personal tutoring? Is it the Academic Support topic range if questions, or other additional NSS questions and free comments?

A: No one set of NSS questions or responses has informed recent developments in personal tutoring. Clearly the Academic Support questions are a key source of feedback, but personal tutoring is relevant to several of the question sets and free comments frequently refer to personal tutoring. Sources of feedback from students on personal tutoring are not, of course, limited to the NSS.

Q: What is the evidence behind our approach to personal tutoring?

A: Our approach to personal tutoring for the current academic year is based on the consultation carried out in 2018-19 and particularly on work undertaken as part of the SERF for AY 20-21, which took account of staff and student feedback and sought to deal with the conditions we faced then and which continue to affect us.  As we plan for personal tutoring from 22-23 onwards, our ongoing process of evaluation will be based on what we learn from our own and others’ research evidence, as well as effective practice elsewhere, and will involve as many students and colleagues as possible.

Q: How can I get in touch if I would like to give feedback as part of the ongoing evaluation of personal tutoring?

A: Please contact alison.shaw@newcastle.ac.uk if you would like to participate in the ongoing evaluation and improvement of our personal tutoring practice.