IS PERSONAL ACADEMIC TUTORING CHANGING THE WAY WE SUPPORT STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, HOW DO TUTORS FEEL ABOUT PERFORMING THE ROLE?

The Teaching Excellence Framework (2016) has a clear focus to improve the student experience through good quality teaching whilst demonstrating value for money education. This has led to a greater emphasis on the metrics of student satisfaction, retention, achievement and graduate employment. The introduction of dashboards and administrative systems to support personal academic tutors in monitoring and flagging "at risk" students seem to be the preferred method for universities to meet the challenge of these key changes. An evolving system of student support is changing the way we record and audit the personal tutorial but is it changing the way we conduct the tutorials? My research asks personal academic tutors how they feel about performing the role. Although there are many models and theories to guide them, I have found varied practices based on individual experience, confidence and skill. Consideration of models and theory of personal tutoring, together with a discussion of different practices and support mechanisms for conducting a tutorial, with an explanation of the impact of emotional labour will analyse the personal academic tutor's feelings of performing the role. The listening guides I poems (Gilligan 2006) will conclude the investigation. Some of the results may resonate with you and your experiences of conducting a personal academic tutorial.