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From settling into university life to planning your career after graduation, the relationship you build with your tutor will play a large part in the success you achieve at UCL and beyond.
To help you get the most from your regular progress meetings with your Personal Academic Tutor, we have created this brief overview of the type of topics you’ll be discussing during your time at UCL. If you like to talk, you may not need it, but it’s always useful to have something to fall back on if ever you’re lost for words. Read the questions and think about your answers. The open-ended questions, which your tutor may use to form the basis of your conversation, are organised in roughly chronological order, from first to final year, though there’s no reason why certain topics can’t be addressed at any time.
This guide is divided into 4 sections:
- your first year of study
- the middle year(s)
- the final year
- guided conversation for postgraduate taught students
You can also download the print version of the guide.
Your first year of study
From orientation and establishing a healthy study routine to forming relationships and planning for the years ahead, there’s a lot of ground to cover during year one.
Settling in
- Where did you live and study before you came to UCL?
- Why did you choose UCL?
- Why did you choose your subject?
- What are you most looking forward to on the course?
- What do you think you might gain from coming to a University that’s well known for its research?
- Do you have a particular destination in mind beyond UCL or are you open to a range of possibilities and hoping UCL will help you shape those?
- Have you met your Transition mentor yet?
- Do you have any particular concerns that you’d like to address now?
About Personal Academic Tutoring
- Do you understand how Personal Academic Tutoring is organised in your department/programme?
- What do you think you can expect from your Personal Academic Tutor, and what can your Personal Academic Tutor expect from you?
- Do you know about the resources and opportunities available to support you?
Making progress
- How have you found the year so far?
- What aspect have you found most intellectually stimulating?
- What have been the highlights?
- What have been the hardest parts? How have you managed those?
- Has your view of your subject changed from when you started? If so, how?
- What do you feel you have you learned so far?
Support and wellbeing
- Are you finding all the course materials accessible to you?
- Any issues with physical access on campus?
- Do you know the procedure if you miss any classes due to illness?
- Do you know what to do if you think you might need an extension to a coursework deadline?
- Looking ahead to the exam period, have you applied for any reasonable adjustments you might need?
Research
- Have you been able to get a sense of any of the research activity that’s happening in your department?
- What independent investigations have you done so far?
- Have you been able to meet researchers in your department and talk about what they do?
Getting feedback
- Have you had any informal feedback on your work, including contributions to discussions, seminars, labs? What did you learn?
- Have you had any formal feedback yet on your work? If so, what have you learned and what actions will you take forward as you continue to study?
- What kind of feedback do/would you find most useful?
- Do you have any questions about your feedback?
- Are you making use of other opportunities to seek feedback eg. via Moodle or during office hours?
- How confident do you feel about using the correct referencing style for your subject(s)?
- Are you confident that you understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it?
Building relationships
- What opportunities have you had to collaborate with other students? What have you most enjoyed about this collaboration? What did you find most challenging?
- Have you used any of the professional teams at UCL, such as library services, careers service, or Student Support and Wellbeing Services?
- Have you joined any clubs or societies? How’s that going?
- Have your experiences here made any difference to the way you relate to friends and family outside UCL?
- What plans do you have for the rest of this academic year to build/develop collaborative relationships?
- Can you think of up to 3 groups at, or connected to, UCL that you feel a part of, perhaps through social media, societies or the department?
Looking ahead
- Can you think of a piece of information or advice that’s been especially useful to you so far?
- Are you beginning to feel part of a learning and research community? If not, what could you do to make this happen, or what could UCL be doing?
- What plans do you have for the end-of-year vacation?
- Have you thought about volunteering, work shadowing or internship opportunities?
- Have you considered registering for the Global Citizenship Programme?
Reviewing the year
- Looking back over the year, what have been the highlights?
- What have been the hardest parts and how have you managed these?
- In what ways do you see your subject differently now?
- What do you think are your personal strengths?
- What areas do you think you need to spend some time developing?
- In what ways have you been able to stretch yourself beyond the immediate requirements of your course?
- Do you feel you’re still heading for the destination you had in mind (if you had one!)? If you didn’t, is anything starting to come into focus yet?
- If you have optional modules ahead of you, what is influencing your thinking about your choices for next year?
- Do you have all the information you need? Is there anything else you need?
The middle years
During the middle years, continuity is the name of the game, as you polish up key skills, focus on personal and professional development and build firm foundations for the future.
The year ahead
- How are you feeling about the year ahead?
- Looking back at last year, what are the three most significant things you’ll take forward this year?
- How are you beginning to identify areas of particular interest to you? Are you reading into particular aspects of your subject(s), or considering dissertation topics that especially interest you?
- What are you doing, and what could you do, to keep up your motivation for study?
- Can you identify three things that you want to achieve or particularly focus on this year?
Improving your skills and tracking your development
- Are there any particular skills you have identified as important for this year, such as project management, research skills, essay-writing techniques, presentation skills, or working as part of a team? Do you know where to get help with these?
- Do you know how to use referencing and bibliographic software such as Endnote to help you enhance your academic skills?
- Are you contributing to the community beyond UCL? (Eg. volunteering, sport, music.)
- Are you keeping track of the skills and knowledge you’re developing, and making notes about future priorities and plans?
- Are you aware of different formats you can use for personal development planning (PDP)?
Planning your career
- How developed are your plans for future employment?
- Have you contacted the Careers Service and attended departmental/Faculty events focusing on future career opportunities?
- Have you used any of the professional teams at UCL, such as library services, or Student Support and Wellbeing Services?
Research
- Have you begun to prepare for your own research project?
- What do you understand by research? Why is it important?
- What research have you done so far?
- Are you attending – and perhaps even contributing to – events, talks or research seminars in your department?
- If events like this are not readily available, can you think of ways in which you might help introduce them?
Reviewing the year
- Looking back over the year, what have been the highlights?
- What have been the hardest parts so far and how have you managed these?
- What do you think are your personal strengths?
- What areas do you think you need to spend some time developing?
- Do you feel you’re still heading for the destination you had in mind, if you had one, and if you didn’t, is anything starting to come into focus yet?
Looking forward to next year
- You will have optional modules ahead of you, what is influencing your thinking about your choices for next year?
- How can you set about making fully informed choices? Do you have all the information you need?
- Have you selected your final year project? Did you get the project you wanted?
- Have you begun thinking about how to prepare for it (research skills, but also specific subject preparation)?
- What plans do you have for the vacation? Are there things you need – or want – to develop ahead of next year?
Find out about topics for the final year of your studies