Student Support (UG)
Personal Tutors
This page offers information surrounding the personal tutoring system within the Department of History, the types of support your personal tutor can offer and how to contact them.
Key points:
You can find who your individual personal tutor is in your MyRecord (via MUSE), or for new Level One students, we will let you know this during Intro Week.
Your personal tutor is one of your first points of contact. They are available to discuss and support academic progression. They are also there to you with any difficulties you may be experiencing and point in you in the right direction for specialist help or any additional skills development you may be interested in.
Your personal tutor group will also be a good source of support. Wherever possible, we will try to keep groups together throughout your time in the department, so you will meet regularly with these other students.
You can find the contact details for your personal tutor on the staff profile pages.
Further information:
You will be invited to at least one meeting with your personal tutor per semester, usually in October and March (for first year students, your initial meeting will take place in induction week, and will be as part of a group; otherwise, meetings will generally take place in the tutor's office). These meetings will have two main objectives:
To allow you to reflect on your academic performance and consider how you might learn from your tutors’ feedback.
To consider your personal development more broadly, including any opportunities for gaining experience and building skills outside of academic study.
The meetings will come at different points in the semester, depending on the timing of results and feedback. They will also provide you with the opportunity to review your progress more broadly and consider your goals for the forthcoming academic session and over the longer term. Your personal tutor also acts as a point of contact to discuss your academic progress, future plans and so on, as well as if you are struggling academically or personally with any aspect of university life. In such cases, you are encouraged to contact your personal tutor yourself, either through email or attending weekly office hours: regular communication will ensure that you get the most out of this relationship. Personal tutors and/or course tutors can also write references, when required, which is another reason to keep in touch throughout your degree.
While the History department tries wherever possible to keep the same Personal Tutor for each student during his or her time in Sheffield, it is sometimes necessary to assign a group of students to a different member of staff (temporarily or for good) because of study leave. You can find out who your personal tutor is by selecting MyRecord on MUSE.
Information which you may make available to your Personal Tutor or to anyone taking that role in the Department will not unnecessarily be passed on to anyone else; if you want it to be considered 'strictly confidential', say so, and we shall then agree with you who may have access to it and for what purposes - subject, of course to issues of safety and of criminality.