Personal Tutor

All academic staff in the School of Economics are personal tutors. When you arrive at Kent you are assigned a personal tutor (details are available on the Student Data System), and you are required to meet with your tutor within the first two weeks of the academic year. After that your personal tutor is also the first person you should contact to discuss any problems you may be having at any point during your time at Kent.

Personal tutors can give advice on a range of academic issues related to studying economics, such as:

• module choices and problems
• results
• attendance and academic progress
• concessions (when something goes wrong and affects your studies)
• taking a break from your course (intermission) or withdrawing
• plagiarism
• study skills
• careers issues and choices
• personal problems

Even if personal tutors cannot answer your question directly they should be able to refer you on to another person within the School, or a department in the University.

References

In the first instance you should contact your personal tutor. Staff are usually happy to provide references, but please give as much notice as possible – a couple of weeks would be ideal. Asking for a reference in the afternoon when the deadline is at midnight is not a good idea! It will be helpful if you can provide as much information as possible about your application and include your CV with the request.

Contacting your personal tutor

All staff have consultation hours when they are available to students. Please check the staff list or see the list outside the Economics General Office, Keynes Mg.14. If you can’t make the consultation hours specified, contact your personal tutor by email to arrange an appointment.

Seminar leaders/module convenors

Module convenors and seminar leaders are available to provide help or advice on a particular module. If you have a more general query you should go to your personal tutor.

Contacting module convenors and seminar leaders

For module convenors you should use the available consultation hours - please check the staff list or see the list outside the Economics General Office, Keynes Mg.14. If you want to contact seminar group leaders it might be wise to email them first.

Director of Studies

The School of Economics has a Director of Studies for each year of study (Stage). You can consult them about any matters relating to your degree programme. In particular they can provide advice on:

• results and progression to the next year
• changing modules
• changing course

You need permission (signature on the relevant form) from the Director of Studies at each stage in order to change modules or to change course.

The Directors of Studies are:

• Dr William Collier (Stage 1)
• Dr Edward Cartwright (Stage 2)
• Prof Alan Carruth (Stage 3)

Senior Tutor

The Senior Tutor, Dr Maria Garcia-Alonso, provides back-up and a referral point for personal tutors, and is also responsible for

• progress monitoring
• plagiarism and other issues of academic discipline

Progress monitoring

The School of Economics has a system of regular monitoring of student progress. The Senior Tutor oversees the system and advises students to see their personal tutors, or meet with her, when there is reason for concern. She can provide help and advice if you are having severe problems and may need to take time out from your studies.

Attendance at seminars and lectures

Attendance at lectures and seminars is compulsory. Your attendance is monitored and the Senior Tutor oversees the monitoring system. The system is intended to highlight students who might be having difficulties, but students who miss seminars on a regular basis go through a warning system, which gets progressively more severe. Some modules award marks for seminar participation.

Mentors

The School runs a system of student peer mentors, that is, experienced third year students who provide first year students with valuable advice from a student perspective. Mentors contact their allocated mentees during freshers week to arrange a meeting. If you do not know who your mentor is, please contact the economics general office.

Feedback

The Student Staff Liaison Committee consists of elected student representatives from each year of study and two staff members, usually the Director of Learning and Teaching (Prof Iain Fraser), who chairs the SSLC, and the Senior Tutor (Dr Maria Garcia-Alonso). It is intended as a forum for discussing any issues relating to learning and teaching in the School of Economics. Issues raised are dealt with by the SSLC chair or raised at the School’s Learning and Teaching Committee or School Meeting.

The names, photographs and emails of the student members of the SSLC are on the Economics noticeboard in Keynes and on the School website. You should contact one of the student or staff representatives if there is something you think should be discussed by the committee.

The SSLC normally meets once a term, with the first meeting in week 6/7 of the autumn term. Students on the SSLC also represent fellow students on the Learning and Teaching Committee and the formal Economics School Meeting and various Faculty committees.