Academic Personal Tutor programme

About the programme

Having an Academic Personal Tutor for the duration of your course is an integral part of study at UWE Bristol.

All first year students will have access to a designated personal tutor. The tutor will be an academic member of staff who will have access to information on your performance and profile, allowing them to effectively support your personal and academic development.

UWE Bristol subscribes to the National Union of Students Charter on personal tutoring.

How tutors can help

Tutors are there to discuss your progress and provide ongoing support for you, in addition to the tuition on your course and modules.

Generally, they will review your progress with you, identify goals for development, and signpost to opportunities that may help you in your personal development, though as each student is treated as an individual the balance of these topics will be different for each person.

Tutors will discuss and agree with you at the first meeting how they can best support you through your studies according to your individual needs.

Meeting with your tutor

A meeting with an Academic Personal Tutor is designed to be flexible, allowing you to discuss academic concerns and queries that you wish to cover. You will have normally agreed with your tutor the main themes of discussion that will be covered in the first meeting.

The tutor is there to encourage you to be able to reflect on your progress on your course and identify where they believe you need support – the tutor can then provide that support or direct you to other appropriate support within the University.

The key role of a tutor is to provide support for your academic development. If you need support on an administrative or non-academic welfare matter, then you should contact Student Support Advisers. Personal tutors will be able to direct you to these services when relevant.

Making an appointment

Arrangements will be made individually. As face-to-face meetings are not always the most convenient, sometimes it may be appropriate for meetings to be scheduled virtually, whether by Lync, telephone, Skype etc.

You will be scheduled to meet your tutor at least 90 minutes in the first year (which could be three sessions of 30 minutes), then twice for 30 minutes each in the second and third years.

Changing your tutor

We hope that you will keep the same tutor for all your years of study, but where it isn’t possible there will be a record system to ensure that you are properly handed over from one tutor to the next. In the final year, it may be more appropriate for students to change tutors to better match them with an academic who could support a final year dissertation, for example.

If you feel you are not getting on with your tutor, you should arrange to see the Programme Leader/Manager who will discuss a suitable resolution with you, which could include allocating a new tutor.