Personal Tutors | Students | The University of Aberdeen

Personal Tutors

Your personal tutor is a member of academic staff who can guide you with any problem that is affecting your experience at University. Whether it's a personal matter or related to your course, your personal tutor is available to offer advice about any concerns you're having and will refer you to specialist support services when necessary.

This will normally be an academic in your School, programme or discipline. The key roles of a personal tutor is to:

welcome you and help you settle into university life
be your primary contact, providing advice and guidance for any concerns
refer you to our wider support services when necessary
meet with you throughout the year, either one-to-one or as part of a group, to discuss experiences (meetings will take place face to face on campus or online)
encourage you to reflect on your progress and guide you on where to get advice regarding studies
offer general support in co-curricular opportunities, using the MySkills framework, and enhancing employability

Personal tutors are also be able to help with:

providing a reference for a future employer or for postgraduate study
providing general advice on how to reflect and improve academic performance
proactively contacting students to offer support if engagement with studies or other factors suggest that they may be in difficulty (e.g. receiving a C6/7)

When will my personal tutor respond to an email?

Your personal tutor will respond within three working days. They are only expected to reply during office hours. Personal Tutors who are away will normally ask you to contact one of their colleagues. If you have an urgent wellbeing concern, you can contact the Student Helpline for 24/7 support.

If you contact your personal tutor with a question, please give them time to reply (their automatic reply may give you a guide as to when to expect a response). Please avoid sending your message to multiple people as it may lead to confusion or delays in responding.

Your Support Network

Your personal tutor is part of a wider support network at the University available to you, which includes:

Personal Tutor Meetings

You can find details of who your tutor is and their email address via your Student Hub. You can also find their contact details on MyAberdeen via the Personal Tutor organisation link.

You will receive an invitation to meet your Personal Tutor at the start of each academic year. If you do not hear from them by the end of September, please contact them requesting an appointment. If your personal tutor does not get in touch, you can contact the senior personal tutor (SPT) in your school who will contact your personal tutor on your behalf. You can also email the Personal Tutor team for support.  

You should meet with your personal tutor at key times throughout the year. Ideally, you should meet with them at least twice a year at the start of each semester. These may be one-to-one meetings or group meetings, decided by both you and your tutor. This is an opportunity for you to share experiences or discuss aspects of your student life such exam preparation strategies.

Your tutor may also contact you by email from time to time to check if you are OK or to arrange meetings at other points during the year, for example, mid-way through the semester to check how you are getting on, or prior to exam periods.

You can approach your personal tutor with a query or request a meeting whenever you need help or advice throughout your time at university. Personal Tutors will be happy to help so please get in touch.

Developing a good relationship with your tutor is likely to be a great advantage to you. Please always reply to your tutor's emails even if you do not want to meet up and let them know if you cannot make an arranged meeting.

Senior Personal Tutor

Each School has a Senior Personal Tutor who is responsible for organising the pastoral support within their School. Whilst your personal tutor is your first point of contact, if they cannot help you or do not reply, you can contact the senior personal tutor in your school, who will try to help you. Further guidance is also offered by the pastoral support team who you can contact by emailing personaltutor@abdn.ac.uk .

Biological Sciences: Dr Martin Barker
Business School: Dr Eva Pocher
Divinity, History, Philosophy & Art: Dr Heidi Mehrkens
Education: Ms Ingrid Stanyer
Engineering: Dr John Cavanagh
Geosciences: TBC
Language, Literature, Music & Visual Culture: Ms Sara Heim
Law: Dr Erin Ferguson
Medical Sciences: Dr Ann Rajnicek & Dr Fabien Naneix
Natural and Computing Sciences: Dr Peter Henderson
Psychology: Dr Mingyuan Chu
Qatar: Mr Stephen Fettes
Social Science: Dr Martin Mills