Here for you: Your Academic Guides
What is an Academic Guide?
Our Academic Guides are here to help you reflect on your progress and encourage you to work towards your academic and future career goals.
You will be allocated an Academic Guide who will usually remain with you throughout your degree. They are academics from within the School of Life Sciences and are knowledgeable about your academic journey.
When will I meet my Academic Guide?
You will meet your Academic Guides, during a timetabled session in Welcome Week and continue to see them through a mixture of scheduled sessions and drop-in opportunities. They will be able to signpost you to relevant student support and services across the university if needed. In scheduled sessions with your Academic Guide you may focus on where you are now, where you would like to go and explore what you need to do to reach your goals.
Regular drop-in opportunities are also available if you'd like additional guidance or have questions between scheduled meetings which can be arranged by speaking to our Student Advice Coordinator. At these drop-in sessions you will be able to speak with any of the Academic Guides of the team, including the one allocated to you.
Additionally, Academic Guides will run regular “Spotlight on...” sessions where they will cover issues you and your peers told us you wanted to know more about.
Further information, including session dates and resources, will be available on the .
Getting the most from your Academic Guides
To make the most of your sessions with your Academic Guide, we would encourage you to:
- Attend scheduled Academic Guide meetings
- Prepare for your meetings, by completing pre-session reflections (see )
- Be open about your goals, progress and any challenges you’re facing
- Make the most of drop-in sessions and “Spotlight on ...” sessions to get additional advice or guidance
- Ask questions about things you’re unsure of
Your engagement with the Here for You programme
The programme is designed to support your academic development throughout the course. Your engagement with the Academic Guides is a key component of this and complements your development in taught modules. Whilst we expect that you attend scheduled sessions, you can maximise your time at the university through further engagement opportunities.
Your Student Advice Coordinator is a valuable first contact point for when things are going well, and to support you when you may need some direction on who to speak to next.