The role of your Personal Academic Tutor
The University operates a tutor system to help support and advise students in their academic study. As a student, you can expect to be allocated a Personal Academic Tutor. Your Personal Academic Tutor may or may not be one of the teaching staff you see in the course of your studies, but their role in this context is to provide advice and support to you throughout your study, and to help review your academic progress. You can expect to see your Personal Academic Tutor at key points through your University career and, if you need to, you can contact them more frequently. Sometimes, your Personal Academic Tutor may refer you to other areas for support. They may refer you to individual support services, or to your Student Office for information, or to the Director of Student Support. The Director of Student Support (Dr Daniel Schoth) will have a more specialised understanding of supporting students, and may support you if you have a particular problem. You can also contact the Director of Student Support if you wish to change your allocated Personal Academic Tutor (email psy-support-ug@soton.ac.uk).
The University expects that you will engage with your Personal Academic Tutor, attend the scheduled meetings, respond to messages from your Personal Academic Tutor, and notify your Personal Academic Tutor (or the Director of Student Support, if you prefer) if you are experiencing problems which are affecting your performance, attendance or progress in your studies. In particular, you should contact your Personal Academic Tutor if you feel your performance in any forthcoming examinations will be affected by ill health or other special considerations, and check with your Personal Academic Tutor if you plan to cite him/her as a referee for job applications.
Further information about your Personal Academic Tutor and Director of Student Support, as well as specific details relating to the Tutor system attached to your degree programme, can be found under the ‘Key Contacts in Psychology’ section located on the handbook’s sidebar as well as the section titled “Pastoral and Academic Student Support”.