Students' Need for Guidance and Support
For most of the
time, the majority of UCL students cope well with the demands of
university life. However, there are inevitably periods when the going
gets rough for some, when they get themselves into difficulties or encounter
situations that undermine their confidence and capabilities. The
College provides an extensive range of advisers and welfare services to
support students with academic, personal and practical problems, but
they mostly depend upon students’ own initiative in seeking help. Many
students are disinclined to be proactive in this way, not wishing to
admit to a problem or to an inability to cope, particularly if it
requires making a formal appointment with a ‘specialist’ or someone in
a position of authority within the College. Thus many student problems
are never brought to the notice of relevant staff and agencies or, by
the time they are, they have reached crisis proportions.
The personal tutoring system seeks to reduce the incidence of situations like this by providing every student with a mentor, someone whom they get to know and who maintains regular contact with them, who is readily accessible within their department and to whom they can turn for support in times of trouble. The personal tutor is someone who will act as an ‘honest broker’ when differences arise between students and staff (both academic and administrative). A good relationship between personal tutors and their tutees encourages students to talk about any difficulties they are experiencing, before they develop into major problems. In a proactive system, tutors may well pick up early warning signals that enable them to offer help rather than waiting for the student to take the initiative. Moreover, because they know their tutees well, proactive tutors are better placed to judge the seriousness of the problems they encounter and thus better able to give appropriate guidance and/or referral.
Page last modified on 27 sep 10 19:10
