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The final year can be uniquely challenging, as your studies come to a head and you prepare for life beyond UCL. It’s a time when your personal tutor can be especially helpful.
To help you get the most from your regular progress meetings with your personal tutor, we have created this brief overview of the type of topics you’ll be discussing during your final year at UCL. If you like to talk, you may not need it, but it’s always useful to have something to fall back on if ever you’re lost for words. Read the questions and think about your answers. The open-ended questions, which your tutor may use to form the basis of your conversations. You can also download a print version of this guide.
The year ahead
- How are you feeling about the year ahead?
- Looking back at last year, what are the three most significant things you’ll take forward this year?
- What progress have you made with identifying areas of particular interest to you, and have you been able to make choices to reflect that interest?
- What are you doing, and what might you do, to keep up your motivation for study?
- Can you identify 3 things that you want to achieve or particularly focus on this year?
Final year considerations
- How are your research project plans coming along?
- What progress have you made developing the skills that you identified as important for this year, such as project management, research skills, essay-writing techniques, presentation skills, or working as part of a team? Do you know where to get help with these?
- Have you a clear idea of what you intend to do next year?
- Have you begun looking at application schedules for further study or for graduate training schemes?
- Have you contacted the Careers Service?
- The final year can be quite pressured – do you know how to get support if you feel stressed?
Measuring progress on your research project or dissertation
- How is your project work going?
- Has the supervision been useful?
- What would you change about your supervision if you could?
- Have you identified any research skills that you need to develop further in order to help with the project work?
Planning your career
- Have you made use of the Careers Service?
- Do you have a CV prepared?
- What are you planning to do in the next six months to make your CV stronger?
Reflecting on your time at UCL
- How have you changed during your time at UCL, and what sort of person do you think you’ve become?
- Do you have any recommendations for UCL concerning future students taking the same course as you? Or just in general?
- Where do you want to be in 5 years’ time?
- Do you see yourself having an ongoing relationship with UCL? What could that look like?