Enhancing Academic Advising and Personal Tutoring in Higher Education
UKAT, the United Kingdom Advising and Tutoring association, is a learned society of professional practitioners and researchers interested in advancing the scholarship and practice of student advising and personal tutoring in Higher Education in the UK. We advance the field through our conferences, symposia, workshops, support for original research, peer-reviewed academic publications, accreditation of practice, professional courses, and resources.
Webinar - Supporting Multiculturalism in Group Tutorials through Language Portraits: Real Practices from International Collaborations - Thursday, January 15, 2026
This webinar will feature real-world examples, challenges, and best practices from a recent British Council collaborative project with international universities in Central Asia.
The aims of this session are:
- to explore how language portraits can be used in group tutorials to promote multiculturalism and multilingualism.
- to consider barriers to multiculturalism and how these might be overcome.
Language portraits can be a useful tool for considering an individual’s identity (Mu et al., 2023) and have been used in classroom settings where students come from multilingual backgrounds (Siegman & Galloway, 2025). In our project, we introduced language portraits to student teachers to enable them to consider their multilingualism as part of their teacher identity. The student teachers were from multilingual backgrounds in Central Asia, collaborating with a UK university.
Read more...Free Resource - Because of My Tutor poster campaign
Demonstrate the value and impact of personal tutoring to students and colleagues on your campus using our free, customisable Because of My Tutor poster campaign, which features real student stories. You can customise the posters, change the terminology, add your own stories, and even use your institutional logo to give it a personalised touch, all by editing a simple spreadsheet. The resource contains all the images and stories showcased in the gallery and detailed instructions on customising them. All you need is access to Abode InDesign, a spreadsheet application, and your institutional logo to enable you to create a poster campaign for your institution.
Download the Because of My Tutor resource. [ZIP, 140MB]
Community
UKAT promotes collaborations and the sharing of research-informed effective practice. We offer many ways to get involved, connect with others and further your professional development, including
- Special Interest Groups
- Conferences
- Committees
- Professional development and mentoring
- Research development and support
- UKAT Blog
Membership
Becoming a member means joining a nationwide community of professional advisors, personal tutors, academics, researchers and students who are working to support student success and enhance their educational development.
Members enjoy various benefits, including access to resources, events and professional mentoring.
We offer Institutional Membership, Personal Membership and Student Membership.
Resources
UKAT offers a wealth of resources to help members stay abreast of latest developments, share effective practice and support professional development. Member resources include
- UKAT Professional Development Curriculum of scaffolded professional development opportunities for personal tutors and academic advisors
- Publications
- Webinars
- Masterclasses
- Access to consultancy
- Sign up to our mailing list
Events
UKAT organises and supports regular events for both members and non-members.
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Supporting Multiculturalism in Group Tutorials through Language Portraits: Real Practices from International Collaborations
Online
Thursday 15 Jan 2026, 14:00 - 15:30 -
Making Connections That Matter: Personal Tutoring for International Student Success
Online
Thursday 19 Feb 2026, 13:00 - 14:30 -
UKAT Annual Conference 2026
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Monday 13 Apr 2026, 09:00 - Tuesday 14 Apr 2026, 16:00
Our Member Institutions
