What’s in a Name? Personal Tutoring, Developmental Advising and Coaching in UK University Policy
Monday, April 13, 2026 5:00 PM - 5:45 PM
ADVISING IN A TIME OF CHANGE
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Session Outline
What’s in a name? Across UK higher education, the traditional ‘Personal Tutor’ is increasingly re-described as a Personal Development Tutor, Academic Adviser or Coach. While these shifts are often presented as pragmatic or cosmetic, this paper argues that naming functions as a form of policy work, encoding assumptions about the purpose of advising, the nature of the student–staff relationship, and institutional responsibility for student success (Ball, 2015; Shore & Wright, 2011).
Drawing on a documentary analysis of UK university personal tutoring policies and staff guidance, the paper explores how role titles are used to signal changing priorities in response to regulatory pressures around continuation and outcomes, staff capacity, and professionalisation agendas (Office for Students, 2022; Wakelin, 2023). The analysis is framed through three overlapping philosophical lenses: relational and care-based education, which emphasises continuity, recognition and trust (Noddings, 2013; Thomas, 2012); developmental and constructivist traditions, positioning personal tutoring as a structured educational relationship supporting agency and identity formation (Lizzio, 2006; Yale, 2019); and coaching-informed approaches that foreground autonomy, goal-setting and self-regulation (Ryan & Deci, 2017; Gannon, 2025).
Findings suggest that, while developmental and coaching framings can strengthen role clarity, consistency and early engagement, they may also risk narrowing the relational and ethical dimensions historically associated with personal tutoring if adopted uncritically (Ross et al., 2014; Stuart, 2019).
Learning Outcomes
2. Apply the UKAT Professional Framework (C1, R1, R6) to analyse the alignment between institutional personal tutoring policies and intended student outcomes related to belonging, mattering, and student success.
Bibliography
Gannon, L. (2025). Using the 3 ‘C’s to unlock student success: A closer look at a coaching approach to personal tutoring. Waypoint - A Reflective Journal of Student Advising and Development in Tertiary Education, 1(1), 53–62.
Lizzio, A. (2006). Designing an orientation and transition strategy for commencing students: A conceptual summary of research and practice. Griffith University: First year experience project.
Noddings, N. (2013). Caring: A relational approach to ethics and moral education. Univ of California Press.
Office for Students. (2022). Student outcome and experience indicators used in OfS regulation of student outcomes and TEF.
Ross, J., Head, K., King, L., Perry, P. M., & Smith, S. (2014). The personal development tutor role: An exploration of student and lecturer experiences and perceptions of that relationship. Nurse Education Today, 34(9), 1207-1213.
Wright, S., & Shore, C. (2011). Conceptualising policy: Technologies of governance and the politics of visibility. In Policy worlds: Anthropology and the anatomy of contemporary power (pp. 1-26). Berghahn Books.
Thomas, L. (2012). Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change. Paul Hamlyn Foundation, 100
UK Advising and Tutoring Association. (2023). UKAT professional framework for advising and tutoring.
Wakelin, E. (2023). Personal tutoring in higher education: An action research project on how to improve personal tutoring for both staff and students. Educational Action Research, 31(5), 998-1013.
Yale, A. T. (2019). The personal tutor–student relationship: student expectations and experiences of personal tutoring in higher education. Journal of further and higher education, 43(4), 533-544.
Competencies
This session addresses the following competencies of the UKAT Professional Framework for Advising and Tutoring
C1 - Core values of academic advising and tutoring
R1 - Build advising and tutoring relationships through empathetic listening and compassion for students, and be accessible in ways that challenge, support, nurture, and teach
R6 - Facilitate problem solving, decision-making, meaning-making, planning, and goal setting