The Higher Education Personal Tutor’s and Advisor’s Companion

Stories of practice, with critical insights, from a range of higher education practitioners and settings providing professional learning and development for personal tutors and academic advisors.

Professional learning and development for higher education personal tutors and academic advisors.

With contributions from 50 practitioners from across the sector, this text examines the key themes, theories and concepts relevant to personal tutors and academic advisors and translates these into real-world practice. Case study narratives from a range of settings demonstrate how student learning and outcomes can be improved, and related critical thinking activities encourage reflection on how these learnings can be applied in specific contexts. The book provides invaluable insights and support for all personal tutors and academic advisors, enabling practitioners to learn from each other, develop innovative ideas, and feel part of a community of learning.

Please also see Effective Personal Tutoring in Higher Education for the themes on which the case studies in this collection are based.

Introduction

Themes

Case study 1 Supporting student employability through integrated research exposure and a curriculum- embedded skills module 

Case study 2 The power of future planning: empowering personal tutors to have effective careers and employability conversations 

Case study 3 A data- focused approach to personalising central support programmes and complementing personal tutoring 

Case study 4 Making belonging explicit by design 

Case study 5 Dissonant discourses: constructing a consistent personal tutoring experience across the whole university

Case study 6 The ‘anatomy’ of a solutions- focused coaching conversation in personal academic tutoring 

Case study 7 Developing an effective institutional personal tutoring and development framework to support student success 

Case study 8 How a student and staff partnership informed the co-creation of an online professional development course for personal tutors 

Case study 9 ‘Talking the talk and walking the walk’ of personal tutoring: using structured continuing professional development opportunities to inform, develop and empower personal tutors 

Case study 10 Refreshing the academic advising system through co-creation and consensus development 

Case study 11 Ask PAT: how the introduction and implementation of an e-portfolio approach transformed the nature of student support and development 

Case study 12 Personal tutoring for ‘vulnerable’ and ‘at risk’ students: is there value in a differentiated approach? 

Case study 13 Supporting Arts and Humanities student development and progression through integrating reflection into personal tutoring 

Case study 14 A ‘whole of institution’ approach: what does a culture of advising and tutoring really involve?

Case study 15 Levelling up: from reactive to proactive – shifting the narrative of academic tutoring from problems to solutions 

Case study 16 What do the students think? Evaluating academic advising across an institution using the Listening Rooms method 

Case study 17 A framework for personal tutoring: system and activity 

Case study 18 Using Social Identity Mapping in personal tutorials to aid students in their transition and social integration into and throughout higher education

Case study 19 Personal tutoring as a USP: what happens when personal tutoring is made a priority? 

Case study 20 Professional large group mentoring as an alternative to the ‘traditional’ personal tutoring system 

Case study 21 Moving from distributed to centralised academic advising: making the case for change 

Case study 22 Exploring the values of personal tutoring via a level 7 academic practice module 

Case study 23 Student success coaching: developing a model that works to enhance personal tutoring and student success 

Case study 24 Introducing group personal tutoring to improve student engagement

Case study 25 The Hero, The Professional and The Nurturer: the challenge for personal tutoring to negotiate identities within systems of practice in higher education