The St Mary's Personal Tutoring Policy is designed to support students' academic, personal, and professional development through an on-going personalised point of contact with the University. Personal Tutoring has an important role in enabling students to fully engage with their University experience and realise their full potential, both educationally and personally throughout their time at the University.
Having a Personal Tutor provides students with the opportunity to reflect on their learning and academic progress whilst also developing a pastoral, mentor-like relationship with a key member of academic staff. Personal Tutors are able to advise students on a variety of services and issues; including academia, student services, extracurricular activity, and professional development.
The policy applies to all students studying taught programmes delivered at the University, and is flexible to accommodate all programmes and student circumstances. It does not apply to students on University validated programmes at Collaborative Partner Institutions who will be subject to their own institutional policies.
Role of a Personal Tutor
The role of the Personal Tutor at St Mary's is to:
- agree a timetable for meeting each of their tutees on a regular basis
- monitor student's academic progression, pastoral care and professional development
- support students' knowledge and understanding of feedback on formative and summative assessment
- signpost students to relevant support and advisory services using the Personal Tutoring Hub on SMILE
- attend training sessions for Personal Tutors
- ensure that students know the contingency arrangements when personal tutors are absent for any length of time
- report concerns about academic progression and module failure to the Programme Director
- report non-attendance at tutorials and tutee's lack of communication to the Programme Director
- report tutees not attending timetabled sessions to the Programme Director.
The Personal Tutoring Hub on SMILE offers a range of resources to support and guide colleagues. These include an introduction to personal tutoring at St Mary's plus content from Student Services to support personal tutors in signposting students to appropriate sources of help and support. Student Services also provide a comprehensive Personal Tutor Toolkit to guide you through the various sources of support available to students.
Signposting students
Do you have a student with a particular concern but you are unsure how to advise them? You can use the Personal Tutor Tookit and the information on this page as a quick reference to direct them to the various front-line professional services available to students at St Mary's. Many of the links below lead to the appropriate areas of the SIMMSpace Student Portal where students and staff can get full details about these services, what they offer and how to contact them.
The resources on SMILE give more detailed information and support on how to work with students and signpost to Student Services in tutorials.
Course Adminstration
Mary's University Registry provides a wide range of administrative services and academic support for students throughout your time at St Mary’s - from admission to graduation.
Student Services
Management of St Mary's-owned student accommodation on-campus and in the Strawberry Hill/Twickenham area. Advice on private accommodation options.
A confidential service for any student or staff member experiencing emotional difficulties or distress.
Advice and support to our students who have additional needs as a result of a disability, specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia, medical condition or temporary disability, such as injury
Advice and guidance on all aspects of Student Funding including loans, grants, bursaries, and scholarships.
Other Support Services
Careers
The Careers Service provides careers education, information, advice and guidance. They engage in career management activities, to equip staff and students with the skills and insights to discover their career options and make appropriate choices to develop their careers.
The Learning Development Lecturers, the Literary Fund Fellow, and the Academic Liaison Librarians provide a range of opportunities for students to maximise their potential and develop their learning skills.
International Student Support
International's UKVI Compliance Officer manages the relationship between UK Visas and Immigration (the Home Office) and the University. They ensure that the University fulfills all its legal responsibilities by monitoring international student’s visa and course attendance. Direct international students with concerns to them.
International offer an Academic English Support Programme of sessions, which are of particular use to students who speak English as an additional or second language, all undergraduate and postgraduate students are welcome. They also offer a limited amount of tutorial support is available to any student who would like to work on any aspect of their English.