Session Outline

Neurodivergent students often struggle to navigate both academic and personal life. In the UK, university personal tutoring systems respond to students' academic needs, while wellbeing services support them in developing strategies to restore and maintain their wellbeing both during their studies and afterwards.

On international campuses in China, however, student support maybe divided into two student support systems: the personal tutorial system provided by academics and the personal support managed by Student Affairs. In recent years, these two systems have gradually converged, establishing collaborative policies and practices. This shift reflects an increasing focus on cultural sensitivity, student-centred approaches, and the Chinese Ministry of Education’s objective to provide students with a more holistic education and support structure.

This paper is a reflection on my past practice as a Faculty Senior Tutor at a transnational branch campus in China, where my role focused on offering regular and structured support to students in distress. I did so by working simultaneously at micro level with the student in distress, and macro level by connecting personal tutorial system with administrative and support services.

My work at micro level aimed to help students define their academic and professional goals and achieve them through a structured, step-by-step framework I developed, tailored to their individual circumstances. My approach was informed by Wheeler and Birtle’s (1993) and Lochtie et al. (2018) insights on personal tutors’ role, skills and boundaries; by Falk’s concept of honest dialogues, emphasising integrity and the thoughtful use of language; by Karabenick’s edited works on help-seeking (1998 and 2011) and Stones and Glazzard reflections on transitions (2019). This framework facilitated student empowerment, enabling them to take ownership of their academic progress and personal development.

My work with students in distress was enhanced by a strong collaboration with colleagues from different services (macro level). Therefore, this reflection also examines the critical points of connection between personal tutorial system, Student Affairs support and administrative services, illustrating how cross-service collaboration strengthens the effectiveness of students’ support, and how we addressed the challenges and opportunities that arose from the convergence of the personal tutorial system and the Student Affairs support systems.

The reflection aims at contributing to the ongoing discourse on students support in higher education and in particular in transnational higher education, by offering insights into the complexity of supporting students by placing them at the centre of my practice and of different institutional structures.

Learning Outcomes

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