Back in 2021 when I was running to be an education officer in my students’ union elections, one of the manifesto promises I ran on was to improve the personal tutoring system.
It was borne out of frustration with my experience of personal academic support and the swift realisation, once I started campaigning and chatting with more students, that others were equally unimpressed.
Although some students reported great engagements with their academic tutors, others were more problematic.
Some had never met with their tutor beyond an introductory email during freshers week, with their name and email address and a vague invitation to “get in touch” if they needed anything.
Others had a well-intentioned meeting at the beginning of the year with little structure or purpose to it – that left us (and, probably, the academics) feeling awkward and even less likely to approach our tutors for support.
