What are the roles of your Academic Tutor and Academic Advisor?
Your Academic Tutor in Year 1 will also act as your Academic Advisor throughout your time at Manchester.
Your Academic Tutor will help you:
- Develop skills and knowledge relevant to your degree subject during tutorials. Your tutorial studies will help put the information given in lectures and practicals into the context of your degree programme.
- Enhance your employability by helping you acquire a range of transferable skills. These include skills in written and oral communication, organisation of information, personal interaction, teamwork and the use of information technology. Employers value these ‘transferable skills’. Tutorials will also help you learn to manage your time during your degree course and improve your revision and examination techniques. A detailed list of desirable skills and how you can develop them through the tutorials is provided in Appendix 1 of this handbook. Please refer to this regularly and store evidence in your Employability Skills Record on the intranet (see Employability Skills for more information).
Your Academic Advisor:
- is your first point of contact for advice on academic matters, personal problems (if needed), and is your main link to the School and the University.
- during your degree course and afterwards can provide references when you are applying for jobs (see one-to one academic advisor meeting for more information).
One-to-One Academic Advisor Meetings
Every student in the School is assigned an Academic Advisor. Your Academic Advisor (normally the same person throughout your course) offers you advice on academic matters, personal problems (if needed), and is your main link to the School and the University.
The University’s aim is that by engaging with their Academic Advisor, students will:
- know that their advisor cares about their progression, academic success and future plans
- feel that they belong and are valued regardless of their background, personal strengths and weaknesses
- know who to contact if they experience difficulties either personally or academically
- work to enhance their academic and personal self-efficacy as a result of setting and reviewing goals and reflecting on their experiences
- gain and grow in confidence and skills in developing professional relationships
In addition to you regular tutorials, you must meet your Academic Advisor at regular intervals (at least twice per semester where at least one meeting is face-to-face) throughout your degree. Students are expected to attend and prepare for all arranged meetings with their Academic Advisor and respond promptly to any communication from their Academic Advisor. There are forms on “My intranet” that you both fill in as a record of these meetings, which should prove useful to you both when it comes to references for placements or employment, changing programmes, choosing units, etc. Please prepare for these meetings by starting to fill in each form with any updates, issues, or concerns that you would like to discuss with your Academic Advisor. You can “save” these notes as often as you like before the meeting with your Academic Advisor. Your Academic Advisor may add additional comments to the form and they will submit the final record at the end of the meeting. To locate the forms go to “My intranet” then “My meetings”.
You should speak to your Academic Advisor about any problems that you are having that are affecting your work. We encourage students to take the initiative in raising problems or difficulties (academic or personal) at the earliest possible opportunity so that staff can provide appropriate guidance and support. The expectation is that students will then make appropriate use of all the support and guidance offered at the University.
When you are making applications for summer work, placements, jobs, or further degrees, your Academic Advisor should know you well enough to write an informed reference. There is a mechanism within the intranet meeting forms for you to provide your Academic Advisor with a CV, which you should update regularly, especially towards the end of your Degree Programme.
Semester 1
Tutorial Overview – Developing Communication Skills
The tutorial activities aim to:
- provide a mixture of tutor-led and student-led activities combined with a series of plenary sessions to support first year students in developing their communication skills.
- provide a framework which can be used with programme-specific material
- be integrated with the writing and reference skills unit (BIOL10741) and build on the resources supported and delivered by the My Learning Essentials team in the library.
- act as a foundation for students to understand the purpose and expectations (clear arrangement details, deadlines, marking criteria) of assessments.
- act as a foundation for students to ensure that they are able to search for information and identify relevant data to meet their information needs.
- provide an opportunity for students to consider the implications of science in terms of ‘the bigger picture’.
- link to the semester 1 assessed tutorial activities of an essay and poster assignment.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of Semester 1 tutorial activities students should be able to:
- search for information and identify relevant data to meet their information needs
- identify relevant information to communicate science to specific audiences
- describe the relationship between assessment and learning
- apply a conceptual (and theoretical) understanding of assessment
- describe the nature and meaning of assessment criteria and understanding
- demonstrate skills in self and peer assessment
- select and apply appropriate approaches to assessment tasks
- develop and apply appropriate approaches to avoid plagiarism
- develop and apply a range of transferable skills
Semester 2
Tutorial Overview – Developing Programme-Specific Skills
The tutorial activities should:
- provide a mixture of tutor-led and student-led activities supported by a series of plenary sessions to support first year students in building on semester 1 activities and developing their programme-specific skills
- provide a framework to analyse and present data which can be used with programme-specific material
- link to the semester 2 assessed tutorial activities of an essay and lab/field research poster assignment.
Intended Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of Semester 2 tutorial activities students should be able to:
- develop and apply programme-specific knowledge and skills
- search for information and identify relevant data to meet their information needs
- identify relevant information to communicate science to specific audiences
- demonstrate and apply data presentation and analysis skills
- develop and apply a range of transferable skills
- demonstrate skills in self and peer assessment
- select and apply appropriate approaches to assessment tasks
- identify how to evidence and apply transferable skills for future job applications and interviews