Lightning Talks

Josie Gabi (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Araida Hidalgo (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Josie Leydon (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Grace Johnson (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Genevieve Breau (University of Greenwich)
Nevin Mehmet (University of Greenwich)
Katie Wardle (UCL)
Katie Lewiston (UCL)
Scarlett Shepherd (UCL)

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM

LIGHTNING TALKS

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Session Outline

Culturally Affirming, Validating and Relationally Just Personal Tutoring and Advising in Higher Education

Josie Gabi (Manchester Metropolitan University); Araida Hidalgo (Manchester Metropolitan University); Josie Leydon (Manchester Metropolitan University); Grace Johnson (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Student participation in higher education has improved, and institutions have become increasingly accountable for student progression, success, and graduate employment outcomes as set out in the regulatory Quality Standards Condition B3, which requires that, ‘the provider must deliver successful outcomes for all of its students, which are recognised and valued by employers, and/or enable further study.’ (OfS, 2024). Despite this progress in widening access to higher education, racially minoritised students persistently encounter significant disparities in securing graduate-level jobs compared to their white counterparts (HESA, 2024). They are also more likely to leave university with lower class degrees compared to their white peers. Whilst this highlights the disparities, it does not offer insights into the impact of institutional initiatives (such as identity-based mentoring) on racially minoritised students’ successfully navigating the job market and securing graduate-level jobs and how this can be used to draw lessons on effective personal tutoring practices in higher education. There is still a gap in our understanding of the impact of intentional identity-based match personal tutoring on students’ development of the capacity to persist in their career goals and develop social and cultural capital, widen their professional network and, eventually, securing graduate-level jobs. This is where racially minoritised students are matched with a racially minoritised personal tutor.

This presentation draws on learning from a qualitative study investigating the impact of Manchester Metropolitan University’s MentorMe Scheme on thirty racially minoritised students from the School of Education and the School of Life Sciences to offer insights on racially just personal tutoring and advising for minoritised students. Our findings suggest that cultural familiarity and feeling connected stimulated students’ employment prospects and career pathways and improved their employability and confidence. We will offer insights into how tailored, culturally relevant, and responsive personal tutoring can help break barriers, address students’ unique needs, help them navigate placement and career choices, and support overcoming racial, gendered and class-based challenges.

Using Vevox in this session will offer interactive opportunities for the audience to co-create effective, context-specific, culturally affirming, and relatable approaches to personal tutoring for racially minoritised students. Participants will take away actionable, evidence-based approaches that engage racially minoritised students’ lived experiences to dismantle the barriers that impede equitable career opportunities, unemployment, and underemployment postgraduation. Q&A will offer ways in which personal tutoring experiences may inform culturally affirming, validating and relationally just personal tutoring and advising models.

Supporting students in their academic journey through personal tutoring: A qualitative study

Genevieve Breau (University of Greenwich); Nevin Mehmet (University of Greenwich)

The undergraduate academic journey is quite complex, and especially for non-traditional students (e.g. female students, mature students, ethnic minority students, students from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds) they sometimes require more guidance or scaffolding to become aware of and access the university support that are available to them. At the same time, students are in the best position to know what support would benefit them most in their academic journey.

The main aim of this study is to provide a rich description of students’ experiences with tutoring given the changing institutional framework to focus more on academic advising and less on pastoral care.. The themes that emerge from this qualitative data will inform future implementation of the framework in line with students’ preferences and needs, creating a student-centered approach to implementation of this framework. University ethical approval was obtained prior to conducting the interviews, and the interviewer was not currently teaching any of the interview participants.

We have interviewed 18 undergraduate students from (all female, majority minority ethnic, majority UK students) across five undergraduate programmes (all in health and social care) in 2023-2024, to learn their experiences and preferences for personal tutoring using the old university framework. In 2024-2025, we are interviewing a further 12, Year 2 and Year 3 undergraduate students to learn what their experiences with personal tutoring (under the old framework) and academic tutoring (under the new framework) are, to better understand students’ preferences for tutoring delivery.

Some early themes arising from these data are that students prefer an individualized approach to tutoring, with potentially more one-to-one sessions that were offered under the old tutoring framework. Students also spoke of how they preferred it when their tutor was also involved in their teaching, as it helped them see the link between tutoring and their academic studies. Finally, students did not expect tutors to provide all academic and pastoral care, but in some cases, students did not feel adequately signposted to university support (such as academic skills support and wellbeing support) and sometimes struggled in accessing these supports earlier in their studies, although they generally accessed these supports by the conclusion of their studies.

The presentation will focus on presenting on the findings of the research that focuses on the student experience and expectations of tutoring under two different frameworks. Audience members will be given time to ask questions at the conclusion of the presentation, to reflect on how the themes and lessons learned at this university are applicable to other higher education institutions.

Reflections on the strategic use of artificial intelligence in tutor-tutee communication

Katie Wardle (UCL); Katie Lewiston (UCL); Scarlett Shepherd (UCL)

With advancing technology and the evolving landscape of higher education, fostering meaningful partnerships between tutors and tutees through effective communication remains essential. The majority of 16-24 year olds are using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools, a rapidly growing field which has the potential to help teachers within higher education (1). However, there is a lack of guidance or research on the use of these tools within personal tutoring.

As new personal tutors to first-year undergraduate medical students at University College London, we recognised the challenge of engaging with students at the start of their university journey during which they receive vast numbers of emails and messages, whilst undertaking a demanding course. Capturing students’ attention to encourage responses via email can thus prove difficult. Additionally, the diverse backgrounds of our students necessitate a sensitive and inclusive approach to communication (2). In this presentation, we will reflect on our experiences as personal tutors on the strategic use of artificial intelligence (AI) in developing written communication, encouraging audience interaction to discuss the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI into personal tutoring practice.

Our primary aim was to enhance the quality of our written interaction with students by tailoring emails to their individual circumstances and using a supportive tone, whilst conveying information clearly and impactfully. Personal tutors often undertake other professional roles and must navigate busy workloads; leveraging AI offers a useful mechanism to develop consistent communication with a high level of personalisation which can be adapted and saved for future use. The generative AI platform Microsoft Copilot was used to generate customised email templates addressing common scenarios, for example, students who performed well in formative assessments received a congratulatory message acknowledging their achievement and encouraging work-life balance, whereas students who performed at a level less than expected received a supportive message, offering a meeting and signposting to additional resources.

As personal tutors, we created a Microsoft Teams channel to share ideas and good practice which included developing a bank of email templates generated from Copilot. Our presentation will discuss the potential challenges in using AI, including the use of good quality prompts and the necessity of human review to ensure the quality, accuracy, and appropriateness of the content.

In conclusion, this presentation shares our insights into the practical application of AI within personal tutoring, demonstrating how it can enhance tutor-tutee communication and contribute to the ongoing dialogue on improving student engagement. Recognising that AI platforms may be unfamiliar to many personal tutors, we hope that by sharing our experiences, they may feel empowered to try it out to streamline their communication with students and therefore reduce their workload. We hope to inspire tutors by exploring an innovative approach to student connection and support, whilst acknowledging the need to empirically evaluate the impact of AI on student engagement.

Learning Outcomes

Gabi, Josie*; Hidalgo, Araida; Leydon, Josie; Johnson, Grace; Breau, Genevieve*; Mehmet, Nevin; Wardle, Katie*; Lewiston, Katie; Shepherd, Scarlett

Bibliography

j.gabi@mmu.ac.uk*; a.hidalgo@mmu.ac.uk; J.Leydon@mmu.ac.uk; g.johnson@mmu.ac.uk; G.Breau@gre.ac.uk*; N.Mehmet@greenwich.ac.uk; k.wardle@ucl.ac.uk*; k.lewiston@ucl.ac.uk; scarlett.shepherd@ucl.ac.uk

Competencies
This session addresses the following competencies of the UKAT Professional Framework for Advising and Tutoring