Enhancing Student Wellbeing and Learning Through Personal Tutoring
Tuesday, April 14, 2026 9:00 AM - 9:45 AM
MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
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Session Outline
Personal tutoring plays a central role in supporting student wellbeing, belonging, and academic development in UK higher education, yet practice often varies in purpose, structure, and evaluation. This presentation draws on a recently published book chapter on Enhancing Student Wellbeing and Learning in Personal Tutoring (Upsher & Zavos, 2025) to present a structured, curriculum-informed approach to personal tutoring, alongside an explanation of how this approach is being evaluated in practice.
The presentation outlines how the principles and practices described in the book chapter were implemented within the BSc Psychology programme at King’s College London, focusing on clarity of tutoring purpose, alignment with programme-level outcomes, and the integration of wellbeing-informed activities across the student lifecycle. Attention is given to how personal tutoring can move beyond reactive pastoral support towards a coherent educational space that supports learning, reflection, and belonging over time.
A co-presenting undergraduate project student will then introduce an ongoing evaluative study of the programme’s personal tutoring system, using Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) as an analytic framework to explore students’ experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness within tutoring contexts. While full findings will be available at the time of the conference, preliminary patterns indicate that curriculum-aligned tutoring can support students’ sense of clarity, connection, and engagement, while also identifying areas for further development. The study adopts a qualitative approach, with a particular focus on evaluation design and student–staff partnership.
Aligned with the conference themes of Mental Health and Well-being, Student Voices, and Belonging and Mattering, this presentation will be of relevance to personal tutors, advising and tutoring leads, and programme teams seeking practical, theory-informed ways to design and evaluate personal tutoring. Attendees will leave with a clearer model for curriculum-aligned tutoring and a transferable, theory-based framework for evaluating tutoring provision within their own institutional contexts.
Learning Outcomes
Apply a theory-informed evaluation approach (e.g. using Self-Determination Theory) to reflect on and review the effectiveness of personal tutoring practices within their own institutional context.
Bibliography
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.
Advance HE. (2020). Education for Mental Health Toolkit. https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/education-mental-health-toolkit
Competencies
This session addresses the following competencies of the UKAT Professional Framework for Advising and TutoringR1 - Build advising and tutoring relationships through empathetic listening and compassion for students, and be accessible in ways that challenge, support, nurture, and teach
C5 - How equitable and inclusive environments are created and maintained
P4 - Understand the implications of quality assurance and quality enhancement, and engage in on-going evaluation and development of advising and tutoring practice