Awarded at UKAT’s annual conference at Manchester Metropolitan University, the Outstanding Student Support Award celebrates individuals who have gone above and beyond in their academic advising and personal tutoring. For Dr Christian Emery, departmental tutor at UCL SSEES and co‑chair of the university’s Departmental Tutor Network, the recognition reflects years of dedicated work to improve the personal academic tutoring experience for students across the institution. 

Read more as Christian reflects on this award and what it means to him.

 

Tell us a bit more about the UKAT Outstanding Student Support Award and what receiving it means to you…

So this award from the UK Advising and Tutoring Association means an enormous amount to me because it comes from a large community of scholars and practitioners who are all dedicated to advancing effective personal academic tutoring for students in higher education. This particular award is given to individuals who have shown outstanding dedication and support to their students through academic advising and was presented to me at the UKAT annual conference at Manchester Metropolitan University - it came as an absolute shock to me, much to amusement of my UCL friends who were also there, but a lovely one!

When you reflect on the award, which aspects of your work in student support feel most central to that recognition?

I think what sticks out for me is the recognition that I’ve tried to make a wider contribution to UCL’s personal academic tutoring through my role as co-chair (with my fantastic colleague Danielle Tran) of the UCL-wide Departmental Tutor Network (DTN). We wanted to act as a bridge between the people at UCL who are working really hard to drive a new approach to personal academic tutoring at a policy level and our DTN members, because we are ultimately the ones responsible for implementing these policies in our departments. And I think we’ve been successful in building a collaborative and supportive space that has genuinely helped produce better policy and, ultimately, I think, better outcomes for students.

Do you have any examples of how academic advising can make a real difference to a student’s university experience?

The best thing about being a personal academic tutor is that you have the opportunity to make a real difference. Sometimes that can be a single intervention at a critical point - picking up a student who has completely lost confidence, finding the right support for them during a personal crisis, recommending a course that opens their eyes to a completely new subject or way of thinking, or providing that really personal reference that helps them stand out in an increasingly tough job market. But I’m also a believer in the power of regular small interactions that can really make a student feel seen and give them a sense of belonging in what ultimately is a very large community at UCL. I think a fundamental way of making a difference to anyone is trying to understand what interests them, and therefore empathetic academic advising is really about asking the right questions and showing that you care about the answers.

How have your experiences as a tutor influenced wider approaches to student support at SSEES or beyond?

My sense, both as a tutor at UCL but also drawing on my experience of working in other institutions, was that both students and staff had slightly lost sight of the purpose of personal academic tutoring. And there was a culture of ‘I’m here if you need me but if I don’t hear from you I’ll assume you don’t’ - and that’s understandable to some extent given the increasing demands on everyone’s workloads. But what I’ve tried to do, helped by people like Pete Fitch over in HEDS, who is really spearheading UCL’s new personal tutoring strategy, is to give it a clearer sense of purpose and structure in order to raise student expectations about what they can get from it, whilst at the same time recognising that academics can’t just be expected to deliver change without the resources, guidance and support.

I think what also quickly struck me, and continues to shape my approach to the Departmental Tutor job, is that effective student support requires close coordination with all the different support structures at department, faculty and UCL levels. It’s much easier to support students when you understand the different ways everyone can help.

Looking ahead, what motivates you most about continuing your work in student support and teaching?

Well, positive feedback from students always makes it all feel worthwhile. But since I joined SSEES in early 2020, we’ve faced many challenges that have often required a lot of hard work and emotional resilience - Covid, the war in Ukraine, some structural changes, and of course the wider pressures across the sector that we’re all facing. And supporting students facing really serious challenges can be emotionally quite draining. But what I think SSEES has always done for me personally, and what I see more widely across the university, is make people feel valued. We can’t change everything, and sometimes achieving what we’re trying to achieve is just extremely difficult - but it just seems obvious to me that most people will go the extra mile, and feel more resilient, if they feel appreciated. To be honest, I think trying to do that is the most important thing everyone can do here.
 

Links: 

Discover more about the UKAT Awards 

Find out more about Personal Academic Tutoring at UCL 

Find out more about studying at UCL SSEES 

Picture: Dr Emery pictured (left) alongside other UCL winners Pete Fitch and Sarah Bennett.