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All students are allocated a personal tutor whom they retain throughout their time at University. Tutors hold informal meetings with their tutees on a regular basis and a one hour slot is timetabled weekly (where possible) for this. Students wishing to talk to their tutors should normally book a session within this weekly slot Tutors monitor the academic performance of their tutees continuously and are given information about the tutees' performance in examinations, tutorials and laboratory classes to enable them to do this. They are also required to hold formal review meetings twice per session to discuss examination performance and form action plans with their tutees, where necessary, to improve future performance. The tutor makes formal appointments for these reviews and students are required to attend. Tutors are also expected to get to know their tutees so that they can offer advice on any of a wide range of personal problems should they arise. If these problems are likely to affect academic performance it is important that the tutor is informed at an early stage so that help can be organised and so that due allowance can be made at examiners meetings discussing degree classifications, progress decisions, etc. The tutor is normally the first point of contact with the support services of the University when they are needed and help can be arranged for such problems as studying difficulties, time management, coping with stress, health problems, family and personal relationships, financial and legal problems, etc. Information of a personal nature is kept confidential and students should not hesitate to raise their problems with their tutors. When examiners are being asked to make allowance for personal problems that could have affected a student's academic performance the extent to which information can be divulged should be agreed beforehand with the tutor. The School has a welfare tutor, Dr P. A. Childs, who is available to help students who encounter more serious problems than can normally be dealt with by the personal tutor or where extreme confidentiality is desirable. The welfare tutor is in touch with all of the agencies on campus that can provide help to students and being a senior member of staff can call on a lifetime of experience in helping students with difficulties. |