Personal Tutors: Invaluable first point of call or a waste of space?

“Don’t email me this term there’s really no point.”


Don’t email me this term there’s really no point?” This was a quote that one student received from their personal tutor on their first meeting in fresher’s week.

Hardly inspiring confidence in an 18 year old just arriving in a strange place. This led me to question the quality of tutors across the board and their commitment to their students. Though most of you will not need your tutor at your beck and call, clearly if you did have a problem it would be comforting to have someone to go to.

After making enquiries another student offered me a quote from their tutor, “treat me like your Grandad, any problems you have my door is always open”. Much nicer I’m sure you’ll agree. This then surely shows that the commitment of tutors to their students, though not always bad, is inconsistent at the very least.

To get to the bottom of this I intend to carry out research into the relationship that tutors have with their students, I will post more when this research is complete.